BLOG OFF..

I see a lot of property so it takes something quite special to get my attention let alone my admiration, so how has the worlds most expensive squat managed to do that?.. It’s not even a permanent building, actually it’s not even a building, it’s a building inside a building, just stick with me it will all be clear in the end, a group of artists have transformed one of the worlds most contemporary art galleries with some of the best volume of space you can find in Central London at 196 Piccadilly in London, otherwise know as the Hauser & Wirth gallery into a real life fully functional 1970/80′s style community centre..bizarre, but is it art?

Gallery before the installation

When we at Home Search London find a gem of a property hidden away in a back street of London there is a real buzz to get the client in there to view it as it’s difficult sometimes to describe the energy a property can have, you have to see and feel it for yourself, the Piccadilly Community Centre is very much like that, where they sourced the materials from is just beyond imagination, the attention to detail is truly staggering, even down to those very thin white plastic cups  used to serve boiling hot tea in,  the ones that are really only for cold drinks at kids birthday parties, and if the scolding hot drink did not manage to melt the cup you hand was the next best thing, you really feel that someone with a clipboard is going to try and sign you up for a computer class using the Sinclair ZX80 computer, and you expect the kid to look like a 16 year old Bill Gates as that’s about the age he would have been judging by the dating of the centre.

It’s like the community centre has been there from the 70′s and somebody have just found the key to the front door, but a generous benefactor in the mean time has been paying for the electricity so it could spring back to life at the flick of a switch, and the location, that really messes with your head, bang in prime Central London on Piccadilly a location where I noted Peter Wetherell Mayfair’s Estate Agent quote in his excellent Mayfair property report for April that two properties recently sold for £3,000 per square foot, for our European makler friends that’s about 40.000,00€ m2

The work of art is spread out over 4 floors, a bar in the basement, a must for most community centres in the UK and probably the thing that keep them running, the next two floors have various rooms you would expect in a community centre, a ballroom or dance studio occupies a space that is simply not there in the original galley, taking a look at the picture of the Hauser & Wirth gallery before the installation gives you some idea of not only the scale of the task facing the artists in the conversion but also how open minded the gallery owners were to allow such a conversion, that truly needs to be applauded, I would have so loved to have been a fly on the wall when the first pitch was put forward to them to convert their beautiful gallery space into a community centre with a squat in the loft cavity…

The squat is a brilliant idea, it almost reminds me of some of the apartments we have in Berlin where tenants have been there 50 years and passed away in the apartments, or where Berlin ‘artisits’ have been living in a commune, so much of the art though is real, it all functions, even the squat I’m told is real, people live there to give it a real feel hence the toilet actually functions, this part was starting to feel more and more like Berlin, up onto the roof terrace where there were more squatters having an evening beer overlooking Piccadilly and Jermyn Street with great views into Mayfair and St James from 4 floors up, a little grin creeps over my face having just come from a penthouse round the corner with one of the best terraces in the whole of London on the 9th floor overlooking Trafalgar Square with breathtaking views over much of Central London that we found for a client some years ago.

Tour done, my tour guide Mary Daniels and I headed down to the basement to see how real the bar was who by that time were dispensing free beers as it was the opening night, flashing disco lights and pop music I only hear on juke boxes in when I’m in our Berlin some of the knipe bars in Neukölln, Berlin, when I visit our Berlin investment property office..So is it art, only one way to find out..

‘Piccadilly Community Centre’

Hauser & Wirth Gallery London

196A Piccadilly

London W1J 9DY

Gallery hours:

Tuesday to Saturday, 10 am – 6 pm

Location map

Facebook Twitter YouTube

13 May – 30 July 2011, Hauser & Wirth London, Piccadilly

Former Midland / HSBC Bank and Hauser & Wirth’s Piccadilly gallery is currently being transformed into a fully functioning Community Centre. The centre will host a wide range of classes, workshops and events. Facilities will include among other things multifunctional spaces, a computer room, a non-denominational prayer room, an activity room, a community canteen, a community bar and club. Outside in the market in front of St James’ Church, the Community Centre will run a stall. There will be a daily schedule of classes and events, which start on Friday 13 May and will run until Saturday 30 July.

The community centre offers free room hire. Interested parties should contact: info@piccadillycommunitycentre.org
020 7255 8955

Further information on Piccadilly Community Centre including an up-to-date schedule will be available closer to the opening at:
www.piccadillycommunitycentre.org