Lookbooks

The London Pleasure Gardens may sound like a salacious Dickensian gin-den (amazing) but the aim of this new project, which has rejuvenated a  patch of derelict land on the Pontoon Dock in East London, in the shadows of the Olympic Village is, indeed, entirely wholesome. 

A lovely sprawling mass of cultural contradictions, the Pleasure Gardens are boutique in concept but bigger, better and louder in reality. Taking in art, installation, performance, music, theatre, carnival and cocktails, the idea is indeed based on the London Pleasure Gardens of the 17th-19th century, but given a 21st century injunction of Snoop Dog, street art and fire-breathing robotic dragons.

Anyone familiar with Glastonbury will have had a similar disorientating experience in Lost Vagueness or Shangri-la; Debs Armstrong is the common denominator here, as is Garfield Hackett, who has been a key figure in cultivating that particular festival aesthetic of upcycled art through his involvement with the Mutoid Waste collective. 

The team have used their considerable creative clout to get some of the world's biggest names in street art involved too; Shepard Fairey has created the UK's largest mural, Ron English has mutated the front of an old jet into the snout of a snarling wolf, Risk has spruced up a few old Routemaster buses and TrustoCorp has re appropriated multinational logos to create somewhat more empowering statements. It's a patch of wasteland  transformed into a semi permanent wonderland. 

While there'll be a series of big events happening around the launch - including that Snoop Dog gig - the aim is to maintain the gardens as a year-round cultural curiosity cabinet with community projects, evolving art works, changing installations, street art interventions and seasonal events.

In its previous 17th century incarnation, the Pleasure Gardens played host to Mozart  and Handel, had the tickets made by Hogarth and reviews written by  Charles Dickens. How's that for a line-up?

No pressure then.

www.londonpleasuregardens.com