A pod from the London Eye (EyePod?) being towed donwstream, photographed from the Members' Area of The Royal Festival Hall on London's South Bank.

Since I went freelance nearly four years ago, I’ve spent a lot of time working in – and a lot of time talking about – The Royal Festival Hall in London’s South Bank Centre.

Today is the last day I’ll cycle up here from home in London. Next week we’re moving to Bristol, and really looking forward to our new family adventures out west.

I’ve been reflecting on what it is about the Royal Festival Hall, the Members’ Area in particular, that makes it such a great place to work as a freelance.

As fewer people need to base themselves in traditional offices, is there anything you could abstract from this and blend in to other “public” spaces, I wonder?

(It’s not a complete list, but here are some of the things that I like, and few related things that trouble me slightly. It’s a bit cause and effect, and I don’t think I’d try to change it. I’m concentrating on the Members’ Area. There is seating all over the building that anybody can use, members and non-members, and you can access the wifi from most of them.)

Some things I like  (in no particular order):

1. Once you’ve paid your annual membership you know that any additional costs are entirely up to you and will usually involve food and drink from the well stocked bar
2. It’s a members’ area, but it’s in “public space” and you’re always reminded of that by being able to walk right in, and then the views back out over London’s landmarks through wide-angle windows.
3. The soundtrack changes, recognisably, throughout the day.
4. People. The staff are friendly and polite. And there are lots of fellow freelances. You’re never more than a few yards away from then next great television series in the making, a world-changing web project, a language teaching tutorial or a careers counselling session.
5. You don’t have to book (see below).
6. You can bring a guest. It’s a great place to meet clients. A great chance, often, for them to get out of their usual work habitat and get a different perspective on things. It’s hard not to be inspired by the place, and all its (hi-)stories.
7. The river. Just knowing it’s there. Ever-changning, breathing, reflecting and refreshing.
8. The free wifi. When it’s not being hogged (see below).
9. You might bump in to someone you know here, friends, family (I once bumped in to my Mum here) and fellow freelances. You can freelance in “parallel” and watch each other’s stuff while you grab a coffee.
10. The free lunchtime concerts in the Clore Ballroom, especially jazz on Fridays.
11. It metamorphoses at 6:30 each evening as the day-shift is gradually replaced by besuited and bejewelled concert-goers enjoying a pre-performance aperitif.

A couple of things that trouble me (a little bit)

12. Table-hogs. People who arrive at 10:00am, grab a table and then often leave it with their stuff on for hours at a time. This does seem to be improving as the membership staff have picked up on it, and so – unfortunately – have a few opportunist thieves, who have the audacity and front to stake out the place and remove unwatched valuable items.
13. (Connected, but not quite the same) Not knowing if there’ll be a table available. The members’ area has become a victim of its own success, large queues form just before 10am outside the main doors. It’s a bit like Dalyan in South West Turkey, or Dahab on the Sinai Peninsula. It’s only a matter of time before best kept are on the cover of all the holiday brochures. And I must confess to contributing to this through my enthusiasm for the place. I understand there are plans afoot to increase seat numbers without damaging the unique atmosphere.
14. Lunchtime latency. Video viewing and audio listening peak, not surprisingly. If you seriously need to use the internet for your work, get a wireless broadband dongle.

Do you freelance in the Royal Festival Hall, or another public / arts space? What do you like about it?

And if anyone’s got any recommendations for similar places in Bristol (The Watershed?), I’d love to hear from you – in comments or on Twitter.

[Information about South Bank Centre Membership]

Serco staff struggle to cope with the overflow bike parking near Waterloo Station by London’s South Bank.

They were having to free up some docking stations so people could check their bikes in.

The surplus bikes are then loaded on to a lorry and distributed to empty or depleted cycle hire locations around the capital.

–

Having used the cycle hire scheme successfully on several occasions, yesterday evening I found I couldn’t get a green light to release a bike.

The helpful Serco operative checked my balance with me on the terminal and it was fine. However, I couldn’t release a bike, even though I tried putting my key in about 10 docking stations.

Today I enquired by phone and was told that you have to wait 5 minutes after getting a red light before you can try for a green light, due to the configuation of the computer system running the scheme.

The helpdesk operator was surprised I wasn’t aware of the 5 minute rule. I said in that case I was equally, if not more surprised, that the Serco contractor wasn’t aware of it either.

Better communication needed all round.

And much, much more user research, modelling and usability testing needed for systems like this (and yes, that is an offer of my professional services!).

142 Court Lane, East Dulwich

Anne Shelton 1928-1994

Popular singer and the World War II “Forces’ Favourite” lived here

Voted by the People

This blue plaque was unveiled on 6 October 2008. Further info on the DulwichOnView website.

As we were approaching Tate Modern from Southwark Street a couple of weeks ago we came across a curious statue in Sumner Street.

The larger than life-size grey figure wears clothes that flutter in the wind and is mounted on a plinth bearing no name but a very hard to read Latin inscription which reads: “Quid quid latine dictum sit, altum videtur”.

Intrigued I did some researching on the internet.

The statue turns out to be animatronic. It reacts to and imitates the people around it and will create its own poses if left alone.

The inscription, as Latin scholars will already have worked out, means “Anything said in Latin sounds profound”.

Further information about the statue here

To mark last week’s change of London’s Eurostar terminus from Waterloo to St Pancras here’s a photo I snapped from the bus a couple of weeks ago.

This parade of shops and restaurants is immediately opposite King’s Cross and St Pancras stations.

Sandwiched between Orlando’s Cafe and Eddie’s Fish Bar is Euro Tandoori.

As they say in Goodness Gracious Me, “Let’s go for an English!”

Update to this blog post (June 2010):

Cafe on the Rye

Open 7 DAYS A WEEK
9am-4:30pm November – February
9am-5:30pm March – October.

For all info see the Cafe on the Rye website.

Congratulations to The Bishop, winner of Best Bar in East Dulwich 2007 as voted for by members of the East Dulwich Forum.

The results are here.

And the reaction here.

Peckham Rye Park cafe opened for business yesterday and according to these East Dulwich Forum regulars, so far so good.

Hooray! I met the people who’ll be running it today, they were kind enough to show me round. It looks fantastic.

The very best of luck to them

It has a striking resemblance to the East Dulwich Forum.

I wonder if they are they by any chance related?

Another feed for my RSS reader…