As I was talking to Bridget Ashley-Miller, co-director of the Percy-Miller Gallery, an Italian television crew arrived, hot from Tate Modern and doing a piece on the Southwark art scene. This is, of course, exactly the kind of attention Ashley-Miller and her partner Paul Heber-Percy anticipated when they opened their gallery last autumn, and since Tate Modern’s opening, the whole area has been buzzing.
Their gallery, a modestly scaled shop-front conversion on a pleasantly quiet street, has already established itself as an important venue for contemporary art, and other commercial spaces seem likely to follow their lead and establish themselves in the neighbourhood.
The pioneer in this field is in fact Purdy Hicks Gallery, which opened in June 1996, moving from another site in Southwark near the Design Museum. Before the opening of Tate Modern, which is literally just around the corner, the gallery was quite isolated, with little or no “passing trade”, but recently, the whole complexion of the neighbourhood has changed radically. Importantly, the area as a whole is now far more accessible, thanks to the Jubilee Line extension and the Millennium Bridge (when it is made safe), but a number of attractions have also recently opened: the Globe Theatre, and Vinopolis (which also boasts an art gallery, though to see the work, you have first to buy a ticket to the whole place). Others are to follow, such as a museum of fashion.
The potential is, indeed, enormous. The area’s central location, its river frontage, and the availability of real estate, has meant that what was once a place of abandoned warehouses, sinister railway arches, a warren of gloomy streets with their brick-work blackened by pollution, is being transformed into a highly desirable tourist area. But the result of this is that the complexion of the art world here is changing.
As the commercial galleries and restaurants move in, the artists move out. A familiar cycle of events is underway as the economic balance shifts. So, for example, one of London’s most important studio complexes and artist-run galleries, The Tannery, has come to an end. The gallery, which had consistently over a number of years shown exciting work in its raw industrial spaces, closed a year ago, and soon the studios will also have to vacate the property, which the owner is now developing for more-upmarket custom. However, the landlord has found the gallery a new location further south.
This kind of artist-run venture, can also be found at Arthur R. Rose, a small, hidden-away gallery which has dedicated itself to a quirky but impressive series of group shows over the last two years. But it too is soon to close, though not so much for financial reasons, but, as is often the case with such artist initiatives, because the people who run it think it is time to move on.
Meanwhile, across the road from where the Tannery once operated, a more permanent and obviously more prosperous situation exists for the Delfina Studio Trust.
Created in 1988 by Delfina Entrecanales, a “fairy godmother to young artists”, as she has been called, it provides studio accommodation for foreign and London-based artists. The present location—which the Trust owns—has been established here since 1994. The building not only houses studios; there is also a wonderfully airy and spacious café, and a gallery whose programme has included exhibitions of some of the top names in contemporary art, such as Susan Hiller and Mark Wallinger, as well as showing up and coming artists. Recently Delfina has opened a project space in a nearby location, so it seems to be going from strength to strength.
Of rather similar style is the Jerwood Gallery. Opened in September 1998, here too one finds a gallery and adjacent café. Although there are no facilities for artists’ studios, it does offer rehearsal spaces for dance and theatre, and the gallery has already established itself as an important venue.
Such non-commercial, and privately endowed spaces as these look set to stay in Southwark, having established themselves when property was still relatively cheap, and it is these and the commercial galleries that now make up the character of the area. Bridget Ashley-Miller tells me that nearby Bermondsey Street will soon be bursting with up-market restaurants. Having previously worked at Delfina, she has seen the area change radically over the last five years, and is very positive about the future. She hopes more galleries will move into the area, but is aware that the opening of Tate Modern is to some extent a mixed blessing, as it has helped to push property values through the roof. The number of empty buildings is getting fewer and fewer, and unlike the East End, Southwark as a whole seems set to become a major tourist attraction.
While this may be good for business, it also means that the artist will once again be forced to set off in search of suitably dilapidated and conventionally undesirable locales.
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as ‘The Tate factor'