It's an odd feeling, sitting in the future. The future, by the way, is rather elegant, has very beautiful radiators and the biggest sash window in Europe. It’s also in South Kensington, which is the hardest thing to believe. Can the future be here?
I’m in a soaring, high-ceilinged room at 4 Cromwell Place, in the middle of a handsome terrace of Grade II-listed Victorian townhouses moments from the Tube station. Next month five of these — numbers 1 to 5, stunningly refurbished to the tune of £20 million by architects Buckley Gray Yeoman and joined at the back by a long glass corridor, which gives access to a new pavilion gallery behind — will open as a first-of-its-kind membership organisation for the art world, with 14 constantly changing gallery spaces, all open to the public.
“It’s been four years of blood, sweat and tears to get here so we’re not gonna let any refreshed restrictions get in our way,” says the managing director Preston Benson when we meet, along with membership director May Calil, days after the rule of six is vaguely announced...
