291 Gallery/St Augustines Church, Hackney Road (London)

United Kingdom / England / London / Hackney Road, 291
 art museum / art gallery, deconsecrated church

291 Gallery, London
This ‘is the only London church by the quiet, modest and pious architect, Henry Woodyer who lived as a country gentleman in Surrey. St. Augustine’s was designed for advanced ritual’ writes Basil Clarke in his ‘Parish Churches of London’. The church built in 1867 became, in the 1960s, the ‘parish church’ of the Hell’s Angels bikers. I wonder if the modest Woodyer would have approved.
It is now a restaurant and gallery called simply 291 and has breathed new life into a once backward area.

The gallery is a Victorian Neo-Gothic, Grade II listed building, which had been derelict for 30 years before being turned into a gallery/bar.

and; www.conferences-uk.org.uk/Conference_Venues_East_London...

291 Gallery was established by Edwina Orr and opened to the public in late October 1998 and is one of the East End's most unique contemporary Public Art galleries offering a broad range of multi-disciplinary contemporary art practices, including visual art exhibitions, digital art events, live performances, video/film and music events
291 Gallery is housed in a refurbished Neo-Gothic church, situated in Haggerston Park, London E2. It is named to pay homage to Alfred Stieglitz' legendary, avant garde 291 Gallery and 291 publication (1913 -1920) which were based on 5th Avenue in New York. 291 Gallery comprises of a large Main Hall, the smaller South Wing Gallery and a bar and a function space. The dramatic architecture in the Main Gallery incorporates 50 ft high ceilings and a cinema-sized projection screen showing film and video works.
The overall intention for 291 as a venue and public arts organisation is to support a series of contemporary art presentations ranging across art-forms and to become a social nucleus for conceptual engagement within the diverse arts communities.
Since opening to the public in October 1998 the Gallery has been visited by over 100,000 people and has staged major exhibitions and numerous live performance art events plus premiering numerous films and video, web-based projects and book launches. The local area (London¹s east end) has a large pool of artist-led organisations and groups. 291 has already developed a number of contacts with these groups and individuals and intends to develop these links further by operating as a consistent vehicle for new and challenging artist-led presentations.
"One of London's most spectacular exhibition spaces, this deconsecrated neo-Gothic Victorian Church has been meticulously converted into an art gallery, restaurant and bar. Striking architecture has been combined with the latest technology, most notably a twenty-five foot-high projection screen situated at one end of the 4,700-foot central gallery. So far, the site has tended to dominate 291's mixed programme of shows, which have included ISDN linkups with the Susan Collin's text-based interactive installation on the 'Containership' website; life-sized photographs of 168 naked people aged 1-100 by Anthony-Noel Kelly; the 'Porcupines/Arthinking' group exhibition of 15 Artists - including Cornelia Parker, Martin Creed and Simon Patterson; seasonal 'Agglutinates of Pleasure' performance, video; 'Open Forum' for young, emerging and established film and video artists etc. The current 291 Programme is focusing on Live, Digital Art and Experimental Music. The Gallery is one of the few independently funded Public Art Galleries in the East End of London."
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Coordinates:   51°31'53"N   -0°4'5"E
This article was last modified 6 years ago