Plinth: a London store-cum-gallery pop-up store

Set within the elegant confines of 44 Great Russell Street – opposite the British Museum – Plinth is a store-cum-gallery conceived by Chloe Grimshaw and Paul Franklin.

Open for business until 19 March, Plinth is an innovative new store-cum-gallery space located in Bloomsbury.
The initiative was conceived by co-founders Chloe Grimshaw and Paul Franklin as a means of presenting a carefully curated selection of design, homeware, original work and new editions by a range of artists and makers.

Plinth’s offering sees affordable products juxtaposed with design classics and work by celebrated artists, many of which are designed for a domestic setting; Yinka Shonibare’s intricately illustrated crockery, Julian Opie’s ‘Sheep’ blanket and a candle – ‘redolent of libraries and woodsmoke’ – by Perfumer H’s Lyn Harris sit alongside silk scarves by the lauded Chinese abstract artist Ding Yi and a striking monochromatic umbrella by art-focussed fashion design Duro Olowu.

If the superlative selection of wares wasn’t enough, Grimshaw and Franklin have also painstakingly filled the space with candles, flowers – supplied by F.Bombe – and vintage furniture by the likes of Arne Jacobsen and Alvar Aalto.

It’s a strangely inviting space that fuses ramshackle with something altogether more ‘haute’, without ever teetering into pretentiousness … in fact, its a space designed to promote a spirit of openness. ‘It should be a place where people come to speak about art and relax’ explains Ikon director Jonathan Watkins.

The space will play host to a programme of events, conversations and workshops. Editions come in all forms — prints; ceramics; objets d’art; umbrellas; — and everything (display cabinets and all) is available to be purchased!

‘Plinth is not only about providing a new platform for unique artist-designed products and limited editions,’ say the founders of the initiave. ‘It’s a project centered on a spirit of openness, and creating a means by which a wider audience can access and own contemporary art.’