A Refuge: Wapping project.

It was a occasional chance for me to visit the Wapping project in Wapping wall, East London. As this is a site for my friend who is studying Set design in Wimbledon college. Before I went to the place, I only read some very simple instruction from the website but without seeing any images:

Wapping Project is a centre for the arts in East London located in the historic Wapping Hydraulic Power Station. Built in 1890 and originally used to power machinery using stream and later electricity, the unique space of The Wapping Project is now a thriving centre for the arts. After its closure as a pumping station in 1977, it emerged as a multi -purpose exhibition and performance space.

It wasn't easy to find the place after we came out from the wapping station due to the surrounding areas were so attractive in its unique style compared to the buildings in central London (Nearby the wharf and Thames River,that was why all the buildings have been designed like sea boat style and all with waves shape decoration). After around 15-20mins walk, you hardly to realized you already stood in the front of Wapping Hydraulic Power Station.

This photo found on another website due to the better lightning can show the exterior more clearly.

A restaurant and bar are also open in the Engine and Turbine Houses(just behind the doors), while the historic pub the Prospect of Whitby can be found on the other side of the road.

                                      Kitchen
                   

"The combination of concrete, soaring ceilings and cracked tiles with iconic modernist furniture can render even the jaded restaurant-goer temporarily speechless. Vast hooks on chains dangle from the ceiling. And, in the evening, abandoned machinery, its peeling paint mottled with rust, twinkles with candles, a bit like draping Godzilla in fairylights." -http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/sep/28/wapping-food-restaurant-review-london

More good photos during the daylight can show the interior more clearly:

Behind the restaurant through the small iron door is the way to get into the boiler house: Bathed in atmospheric pools of natural light, pressure pipes, rusty chains, huge hooks, valves and bare brick walls form the backdrop for changing exhibitions of paintings, photographs and performances. The Original square boiler house, with its cracked, crumbling walls makes a refreshingly real gallery space.

I went there during the night, although there are some big windows by the side of the space, due to the darkness outside, you hardly can see anything when you in the space. The only light resources were from the top which used for illuminated the art work on the wall.

Inside the space, it was cold, dark and a little bit scary if you are the only one inside. But I feel safe, I feel like it is a space no one will notice from outside or even when you in the restaurant at the front. This kind of feeling gave me a thought of "Refuge". A perfect place to hide, to alive and to escape. 


By looking at the map, you can see the house also sited on a perfect place: just beside the river and hided at the back of the residential area.