Designed by British designer and artist Morag Myerscough , the Movement Café is a new temporary café and performance space next to the DLR station in Greenwich, South East London. The café was commissioned by developers Cathedral Group and sits in a corner of the site of the former Greenwich Industrial Estate that is currently being regenerated.
Built from scratch in just sixteen days to coincide with the opening of The Olympics — based on the developers' belief that the gateway to the Olympic borough should not be an unattractive construction
site —, The Movement Café is an explosion of colour and type and sits at the centre of an
amphitheatre-like space created from the natural level of the site, post-demolition, 2 metres below
street level. It's the result of a public art collaboration between Myerscough and Olympic Poet and
prolific tweeter Lemn Sissay. Sissay has been commissioned by Cathedral to write a poem about
Greenwich, which will eventually be set permanently into the road that cuts through the site when
it is completed. In the short term, the poem, Shipping Good, is painted on the hoarding that wraps
the site.
The outdoor amphitheatre seating area provides a contemplative, sheltered place of respite
for commuters and visitors to Greenwich and several times a week plays host to storytelling, poetry
reading and acoustic performances. All furniture is made by Morag Myerscough and Luke Morgan
from reclaimed laboratory tops.
Morag Myerscough: Movement Café
The British designer and artist has completed a temporary café in Greenwich — an explosion of type and colour at the edge of a construction site.
View Article details
- 18 September 2012
- London
While the café will operate for a period of six months, the project hints to what the future holds for this development, which will include a bicycle café and
repair shop. Commuters will be able to store their bikes for the day and have them repaired while
they're at work — part of an initiative to encourage a more sustainable lifestyle.
The Movement Café is run by the Greenwich Co-Operative Development Agency, a local not-forprofit
organisation that works with disadvantaged communities across London promoting food
growing projects, and sells a range of organic, fair-trade, sustainable, locally-sourced food.
The Café also has a Pashley ice cream bicycle customised
by artist Luke Morgan, selling homemade ice cream.
Morag Myerscough: The Movement Café
Address: Waller Way, Greenwich, London