The Cornershop
By Angelina Puschkarski
Lucy Sparrow’s Cornershop is the fluffiest, furriest shopping experience imaginable. She’s filled a former derelict store in Bethnal Green with over 4,000 handmade felt versions of familiar grocery items – from fish fingers and cans of SPAM to sanitary towels and newspapers, rocket ice lollies and oven chips to ciggies, veggies, and what is most certainly the softest loo roll ever manufactured.
Every single thing inside the Cornershop – the till, the functioning pricing gun, the contents of freezers, the pick ‘n’ mix stand – is fashioned from fabric, and the whole lot took Lucy seven months to complete.
All her highly huggable versions of everyday essentials are for sale, but will stay in the store for a month, during which time a variety of sewing workshops will take place, designed to engage the local community (particularly individuals with autism and sectors often socially excluded) in relatable, accessible art that’s relevant to them and their neighbourhood and has been brought right to their doorstep. People can sign up to these workshops in the shop and group workshops for charities can be arranged through Lucy.
The Cornershop is open every day (from August 1st) including Sundays from 10am until 7pm, until Sunday 31st August 2014.
For more information please visit THE CORNERSHOP.