On Tuesday 3rd October we are trying a rooftop garden, on top of The Post Building, 100 Museum Street, WC1A 1PB. This is (possibly!) Art in the Park's first venture into the aerial views of London available from new buildings and an exciting and different challenge for our artists.
Meet at 11 o'clock outside the entrance in New Oxford Street (see below).
The Post Building is another new build office which sits between Museum Street and New Oxford Street. The developers have installed a roof garden on the top of it with public access, but we suspect that none of the commercial interests involved with this building are very interested in the public access aspects. All the info we have been able to collect about this building has come from visitors' blog sites.
The entrance (for the roof terrace at least) is NOT in Museum Street, it is in New Oxford Street, we attach a photo (credit to lookup.london). There is, we understand, a small notice pinned to the double glass door saying "public roof garden". You will see from the photo that the building is on the junction of New Oxford Street and Museum Street
Behind the glass door is a security guard. Everyone needs to bring id (we suggest passport, driving licence, not sure if tfl passes will work or bank cards). They will scan our bags and put us through a metal detector. Bags need to be under 615mms x 410mms so no trolleys. They keep a note of all the visitors. There is a lift up the 9 floors to the top.
There is no means of booking us in, or making any proper enquiries, so we will just have to turn up. It appears that the developers were saddled with the public access to the roof garden as part of their planning permission, but they have the option of applying to Camden Council to reduce the opening hours/days if they can show that the public are not visiting enough.
On the positive side of this expedition: there are lots of benches to sit on up in the terrace, and a loo. There are also fascinating views over London, including the Hawksmoor Church and the British Museum to the North (photo credit to lookup.london).
Further info can be found on these blogs: and this one: and this one: and this one
As no doubt the place will be practically deserted you may wish to sit on the steps, we suggest you bring a small cushion as the stoneware looks hard! You may also want to sketch standing up, it might be useful to have a light board with string attached so that it will hang round your neck.
No food is allowed. We will go somewhere at ground level for lunch. Suggest you bring only a small bottle of water.
If the day is pouring with rain, or we cannot get access to the roof terrace for any reason, then we will move to the British Museum. If you let us know in advance whether you plan to come then we will do our best to let you know of any changes of plan. Sue's telephone number for the day is: 07975 864 142.
