July » 2011 » The Popupspace.com blog

Prince Charles to open pop up restaurant

Pop up has received the royal seal of approval with HRH Prince Charles preparing to open a pop up restaurant at Lancaster House.

The initiative is being launched in support of Start to promote awareness of sustainable living. The pop up restaurant has been established by Jamie Grainger-Smith (who set up Fifteen with Jamie Oliver) and Soho-based organic Acorn House restaurant.

Lancaster House, which recently featured in the Academy Award winning film ‘The King’s Speech’, is located next door to Clarence House, the London residence of Prince Charles.

The restaurant will serve 140 diners every lunch and dinner from 27th – 31st July. Customers will enjoy high-end modern British cuisine. ”The menu incorporates some of the best responsibly sourced British food and organic wines”, says Start.

Kirin Ichiban Pop Up Yatai Restaurant

Japanese beer brand Kirin Ichiban has announced the launch of its “pop up Yatai” in association with top chefs from London sushi restaurant Yashin.

The pop up location was sourced by the team here at Popupspace.com for our client, brand agency Be Communications. The Yatai will be open between 3rd and 8th August at the Truman Brewery’s Dray Walk Gallery in Brick Lane.

The Yatai will serve a selection of quality, traditional ‘Kushiage’ dishes – until now hard to find in the UK. The Japanese deep fired skewer delicacies will be accompanied by a bottle of Kirin beer for around £5 and food enthusiasts will have the choice of over ten tasty combinations from the Japanese street menu.

To read more about the pop up Yatai – and to make a booking – visit the Kirin First Cut website.

UK sees 20 high street shops close every day

New research by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Local Data Company reports that an average of 20 shops are closing every day on the UK’s high streets. A combination of high costs and low comsumer spending have been pushed up by nine per cent in the second quarter of 2011, with big name brands like Habitat and Jane Norman among the 375 retailers falling into insolvancy in recent months.

The British Retail Consortium is calling on the Government to take action to stop the decline worsening. Stephen Robertson, Director General of the BRC, had this to say:

“The government’s review of the high street – headed up by television presenter Mary Portas – comes at a crucial time and must result in urgent action. Practical steps are needed to protect and promote our high streets so they remain attractive locations where businesses of all kinds can thrive.”

Cardiff’s empty shop experiment

A team from Glamorgan University has taken over a vacant shop in Queen Street in the heart of Cardiff’s city centre for a “Great Big Empty Shop Experiment”.

The store will be home to a range of design, photography and fashion events for two weeks from Monday 11th July. The experiment aims to test the market for the creation of a community hub on one of the city’s busiest retail streets, providing an alternative to traditional shopping centres.

Dr Gill Allard, Head of The Centre for Policy and Enterprise in Creative Industries, said:

“If you take a walk around Cardiff city centre and stray beyond the immediate environs of the impressive new St. David’s shopping precinct with its wealth of well-known retail brands, two things become apparent. First, there are an increasing number of empty shops around the city; and second, there are signs of a healthy independent retail and small enterprise sector, based particularly in the city’s beautiful Victorian arcades. We hope that our research will uncover new ways in which these unused spaces can be used to encourage the growth of small creative enterprises”.

A full list of events at the innovative shop is available on the Glamorgan University website.