Elephant Cafe - How it Turned Out

Elephant - how it was meant to look

Last summer the old Esso petrol station on Wood Lane got taken over by Elephant Magazine, who promised to turn it into "a new space to act as a meeting place and hub for performance, discussion, film screenings, talks and workshops". Plus, of course, a  "café, shop and outdoor garden area". As often happens these days, the plans were accompanied by a shiny digital image of what the development might actually look like. So, how did it actually turn out?

Old petrol station
The site is a former Esso petrol station, which closed in 2016 and soon began to attract graffiti and rubbish.

TFL - who owned the site - didn't seem to have a plan for it so local developers Stanhope took a lease on it (presumably to stop it ruining the neighbourhood) and turned it into an art installation, created by street artists Karl and Craig. It looked cool (see above) but sadly, and perhaps inevitably, this soon also began to attract graffiti and rubbish.

Elephant cafe - how it turned out

Elephant cafe
The proposed Elephant cafe was always a bit of an odd-looking design, with a big metal wall fronting on to Wood Lane that didn't seem to have any windows, but said "Elephant" in really, really, big letters, and with a really big picture of an orchid.

How it turned out
As often seems to happen, the development itself is unfortunately a good deal less nice than the digital pictures suggested it would be.

The exterior cladding is metal and vaguely prison-like. The big letters saying "Elephant" didn't make it into the final design, and neither did the orchid. The structure feels temporary and rather forbidding.

Interior

Elephant - interior

Inside, things are better. The interior space is a big art gallery (which is presumably why the building has no windows), a white cube-type space for hanging big pictures, and a concrete floor.

And, there is a nice-looking cafe, with plenty of space to sit and catch up with your email.

The project overall isn't really that bad, but it is a reminder of the gap between what digital artwork sometimes promises, and what actually gets delivered.

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