These open studios are a great chance to support independent designer-makers and pick up unique items for your home (or yourself) that you won’t find on the high street. Whether you’re after furniture, lighting, jewellery, fashion accessories, ceramics or silverware – there’s a Cockpit Arts creative with quirky and quality products to fit the bill. Each Cockpit site in Bloomsbury and Deptford has its own open weekend so you can see each social enterprise that has launched the careers of some of the biggest names in contemporary craft. Look out for mini-tours and demos led by some of the crafty folk who work there.
Now you see them, now you don’t – the best thing about the rise of pop-up shops in London is that the capital’s shopping landscape is always changing, the worst is that you don’t get long to take advantage of the offering at these blink-and-you’ll-miss-them retailers. From six-month Mayfair boutiques for designers testing out a new location before they buy into it, to snappy weekend pop-ups for young labels being given a free space to try on for size, each week brings a new batch of temporary stores.
