Londoner's Diary: Damien Hirst’s opening could be a bitter pill for Lambeth

 
Reviving Pharmacy? Damien Hirst (Picture: AFP/Getty)
SHAUN CURRY/AFP/Getty Images
6 July 2015

Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery will open in October, bringing an inevitable wave of bohemians and hipsters down to Lambeth. But is the prolific artist intent on making the area the new Notting Hill?

The Londoner was taking a walk in the sun this weekend and passed the site, a row of renovated warehouses with space to exhibit 3,000 of his works. Hanging on an exterior wall, however, was a hint of what’s to come: a sign reading “Pharmacy 2”.

In 1998 Hirst got the yummy mummies of west London clutching their pearls by opening Pharmacy, a restaurant on Notting Hill Gate on the site of the former Cleopatra’s Tavern. The windows were lined with medicine bottles, guests sat on stools in the shape of pills and the waiters delivered the food wearing surgical gowns designed by Prada. David Bowie, Damon Albarn, Kate Moss and Madonna all had reservations, and there was talk of franchising across the country.

The novelty, however, wore off for the locals and medical professionals (the Royal Pharmaceutical Society claimed that the decor could confuse neighbours seeking genuine health advice). The Pharmacy was sold to a restaurant group. Hirst kept a stake but it finally closed its doors in 2003. Still, the artist made a cool £11 million by auctioning off the decor at Sotheby’s.

Hirst’s office was unable to confirm that the new sign meant a resurgence of the restaurant but planning applications confirm that a restaurant was permitted in initial documents.

There is a drawback if Britpop comes to SE11, though. The original Pharmacy was, according to food critic AA Gill, a great favourite of Jeremy Clarkson. People of Lambeth, be very afraid.

Freya banished for scaring Lola the pooch

The Sunday Telegraph reported yesterday that at a meeting with George Osborne, Cabinet Office minister Matthew Hancock got distracted by a mouse. He managed to contain the beast in a sandwich bag but whose fault was it? The paper blamed Larry, the PM’s cat. However, the Chancellor’s office is at No 11, which is Osborne’s cat Freya’s dominion. Freya wasn’t there, though — she’s been banished for scaring Lola, the Osbornes’ pooch.

Stella won’t be tarred with the toff brush

Stella Creasy has let her politics do the talking since becoming Labour MP for Walthamstow in 2010, but detractors have recently been trying to tar her as a toff.

No such nonsense from Stella’s mother Corinna, a former headteacher. She was interviewed with her daughter in The Sunday Times this weekend and got straight to the point. “My parents came from an aristocratic background,” Corinna explained, “so it never occurred to them to be anything else but Tory. At college I realised how privileged I was so, partly out of a sense of guilt, I joined the Labour Party.” That puts the record straight.

Who’s who on the polo field

To Cambridge this weekend for the Audi Polo Challenge at the County Polo Club, where dancer Laura Jayne Smith and actor Douglas Booth were treading the divots. Smith was the guest of her brother Matt Smith, who may owe his Doctor Who fame to Laura Jayne’s ambition.

All smiles: Laura Jayne Smith and Douglas Booth (Picture: Dave Benett)

“When I was nine I’d make Matt go and knock on the neighbours’ doors and sell them tickets for 50p each to come and watch me put on dance routines,” she said. Good to hear the Time Lord was a humble companion once.

Photo finish for the Soho waiters

Prosecco flooded the streets of Soho yesterday as local waiters pounded the pavements in the Waiters Race, a highlight of the annual Soho Village Fête. The challenge: to complete a circuit of Soho’s streets while bearing a tray with a bottle of fizz, a champagne flute and an ashtray.

Within seconds of the starting gun glass was smashing and bubbles flowing, as Dean Street Townhouse, Pizza Pilgrims and The French House waiters and waitresesses sprinted off. There were gasps as Ludovic Hughes, actor and waiter at Andrew Edmunds in Lexington Street, and Aaron Benito of Frith Street Japanese restaurant Chotto Matte, legged it down Old Compton Street in a dead heat.

A final spurt from Benito appeared to put him across the line first, albeit at the expense of his prosecco, quietly retrieved by The Londoner in the resulting furore. But careful inspection of the photo finale ultimately awarded Hughes the top prize — five meals for two at local restaurants.

If you’re looking for a dinner companion, Ludo...

A 'classic Greek bar' for the FT

While most of the UK press is tiring of constant coverage of the Greek crisis, surely the Financial Times must be the one paper to pity. Hacks arrived at work today to find a themed canteen lunch: a “classic Greek bar”. Delicacies include stuffed vine leaves and lamb koftes. Much like Hotel California, you can check out of Greek coverage any time you like, but you can never leave.

More Yanis time for Danae

Something Changed on Monday Morning, thanks to Yanis Varoufakis, the unruly finance minister with the “early-Nineties Madchester drug dealer’s coat”, as the Guardian once described him.

He announced his resignation in a typically brutal blog post. Will he now be spending more time with his wife, Pulp muse Danae Stratou? Back in May, Varoufakis confirmed to The Londoner that rumours that artist Danae was the love interest from Common People — “She came from Greece, she had a thirst for knowledge, she studied sculpture at St Martin’s College ...” — weren’t wide of the mark. “I think there is some truth in this. She was the only Greek sculpture student at St Martin’s back then.”

With that free time ahead of them, may we soon see the couple having a catch-up drink with Jarvis Cocker in Bar Italia?

Staycation of the day: Roman Abramovich has moored his 536-foot yacht off the Isle of Arran in Scotland for a whisky and cycling tour. Beats San Tropez.

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