About London's Kitchen

Park Royal is an industrial zone in North West London, crossing the two London boroughs of Brent and Ealing. An important centre for UK industry and manufacturing since the early 20th century, Park Royal has provided employment to many first-generation immigrant populations living in neighbouring communities. Today in 2021, Park Royal manufactures one-third of all food consumed by Londoners and supports over 40,000 workers through a vibrant, mixed industrial economy.

Despite intensive existing use, the area, together with the adjacent Old Oak Common, has become the focus of the UK’s largest regeneration and transport infrastructure schemes, set against the backdrop of a global health pandemic that has challenged structures of food production and distribution. Through artist-led partnerships with local businesses, London’s Kitchen considers Park Royal’s crucial role, its heritage, its legacy and the importance of its workers, at this pivotal moment in its history, through a series of six limited-edition products.

London’s Kitchen has been co-designed by Panel, with the commissioned artists (Joy Bonfield-Colombara; free.yard; Erica Eyres; Raisa Kabir; Michael Marriott and Kajsa Ståhl), and the publication co-editor (May Rosenthal Sloan), to respond to Park Royal’s character, its links and its changing industrial heritage, from a centre of manufacturing to a place of material transformations, of goods imported and exported and hands passed through.

The limited-edition products (including a book, a door stop, a soap, a hot sauce, a weaving kit and ceramic 'food'), draw out interpretations of Park Royal now, communicating ideas about making, adaption, locality, resource sharing and the flow of connection between Park Royal’s industrial estates and the rest of London.

All profits from the sales of products during September 2021 will be directed towards local food distribution charities in and around the Park Royal area.

Credits

Organised by Panel

Photography by Angus Mill, Tian Khee Siong and Caro Weiss

Styling and graphic design by Kajsa Ståhl of Åbäke

Website design and build by Jamie Sterling

Films by Marissa Keating and Michael Jones

Podcast sound editing by Rob Kennedy

Thank You

All the artists, designers and businesses involved in making London’s Kitchen, Shazza Ali, Marianna Alexandrou, Beverly Archer, David Beckwith, Jonathan Brewin and Daniella Carlyle at Excelsior Studios, Bhopindar Dhani, , Ali El-Rasheed, Catherine Flood, Lydia Gandaa, Hadrian Garrard, Lukas Grobel, Wilda Haddad, Hamza and all staff at Beit El Zaytoun, Hussam and the staff at Wow Sweets, Anissa Helou, Lola Lazaro Hinks, Jim Hutchison, Ben Kelly, June Lam, Max Limbourg, Richard Ling and Kaye Symington at Paved with Gold, Muhammad and the staff at Little Beirut, Win Man, Neil McGuire, Zarina Muhammad, Peter Musson, Marlo, Nell, Kael Onion Oakely, Maja Ostojic, Gemma Outten, Alexandros Paraskevas, Sid Patrick, Riaz Phillips, Chris Quill, Hannah Raleigh, Oliver Reynalds, Laura Richmond, Amanprit Sandhu, Naazneen Schittzehe, Leroy Simpson, Tian Khee Siong, Tashmar Smith, Sarah Spateri at Park Royal Business Group, Tim Strangleman, Tamariz Deli, Sam Walford, Catherine Wall, Mark Wilsmore and the staff at Ace Café, and Abbas Zahedi and Priya Jethwa and Grace Williams at OPDC.

About Panel

Panel is an independent curatorial practice led by Catriona Duffy and Lucy McEachan, based in Glasgow. Since 2010 Panel has collaborated with a network of artists and organisations, nationally and internationally, providing a unique and creative approach to curating and producing exhibitions, commissions, publications and events.

Panel’s programme commissions designers, craft makers, visual artists, writers and other creative practitioners to make new work grounded in research and often in collaboration with manufacturing.

www.wearepanel.co.uk