Perfect pop-up: Plinth opens a store-cum-gallery in Bloomsbury

Open for business until 19 March, Plinth is an innovative new retail-cum-gallery space located in Bloomsbury.
Set within the elegant confines of 44 Great Russell Street – a listed 18th century Georgian building opposite the British Museum – the initiative was conceived by co-founders Chloe Grimshaw and Paul Franklin as a means of presenting a carefully curated selection of design, homeware, original work and new editions by a range of artists and makers.
Plinth's offering sees affordable products juxtaposed with design classics and work by celebrated artists, many of which are designed for a domestic setting; Yinka Shonibare's intricately illustrated crockery, Julian Opie's 'Sheep' blanket and a candle – 'redolent of libraries and woodsmoke' – by Perfumer H's Lyn Harris sit alongside silk scarves by the lauded Chinese abstract artist Ding Yi and a striking monochromatic umbrella by art-focussed fashion design Duro Olowu.
Those products represent a neat marrying of form and function, but more abstract, decorative and conceptual limited edition pieces are also in abundance; from Richard Wilson's ceramic 'Still Life Jug', Liliane Lijn's technicolour polyester resin 'Liquid Koan' and a weighty, 14cm high brass tooth by David Shrigley (the work, he states, 'could be used for cracking nuts' with).
If the superlative selection of wares wasn't enough, Grimshaw and Franklin have also painstakingly filled the space with candles, flowers – supplied by F.Bombe – and vintage furniture by the likes of Arne Jacobsen and Alvar Aalto.
The pop-up's gallery – a double height space in the property's courtyard – will host talks by artists and curators such as Wilson, Richard Deacon, Nicholas Grimshaw and Dr Gilda Williams (which will be open to the public and subsequently available to view online), as well as workshops with makers such as Nathalie de Leval and site-specific works by contemporary artists including Susan Collis – who will be in residence on the third floor in a collaboration between Plinth and Birmingham's Ikon gallery – and Jacques Nimki, who will install 'invisible' botanical vinyl designs across the space's ceilings and walls.
'Plinth is not only about providing a new platform for unique artist-designed products and limited editions,' say the founders of the initiave. 'It’s a project centered on a spirit of openness, and creating a means by which a wider audience can access and own contemporary art.'
The pop-up’s offering sees affordable products juxtaposed with design classics and work by celebrated artists, many of which are designed for a domestic setting
Grimshaw and Franklin have painstakingly filled the space with candles, flowers – supplied by F.Bombe – and vintage furniture by the likes of Arne Jacobsen and Alvar Aalto
The pop-up is spread across three full floors of the listed 18th century Georgian building
Plinth’s offering sees affordable products juxtaposed with design classics and work by celebrated artists, many of which are designed for for a domestic setting – but more abstract, decorative and conceptual limited edition pieces are also in abundance. Pictured: ‘Liquid Koan’, by Liliane Lijn, 2003
These include Richard Wilson’s ceramic ’Still Life Jug’ and a weighty, 14cm high brass tooth by David Shrigley. Pictured left: ’Brass Tooth’, by David Shrigley, 2009. Right: ’Still Life Jug’, by Richard Wilson, 2015
Pictured left: ‘Liquid Koan’, by Liliane Lijn, 2003. Right: ‘Love and Peace’, by Beatriz Milhazes, 2015
Plinth founders Paul Franklin and Chloe Grimshaw
INFORMATION
For more information, visit Plinth’s website
ADDRESS
Plinth
44 Great Russell Street
London, WC1B 3PA
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Tom Howells is a London-based food journalist and editor. He’s written for Vogue, Waitrose Food, the Financial Times, The Fence, World of Interiors, Time Out and The Guardian, among others. His new book, An Opinionated Guide to London Wine, will be published by Hoxton Mini Press later this year.
-
Enter the world of Cave Bureau, and its architectural and geological explorations
Nairobi practice Cave Bureau explores architecture’s role in the geological afterlives of colonialism, as part of a team exhibiting at the British pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025
By Marwa El Mubark
-
All-In is the Paris-based label making full-force fashion for main character dressing
Part of our monthly Uprising series, Wallpaper* meets Benjamin Barron and Bror August Vestbø of All-In, the LVMH Prize-nominated label which bases its collections on a riotous cast of characters – real and imagined
By Orla Brennan
-
Maserati joins forces with Giorgetti for a turbo-charged relationship
Announcing their marriage during Milan Design Week, the brands unveiled a collection, a car and a long term commitment
By Hugo Macdonald
-
‘Humour is foundational’: artist Ella Kruglyanskaya on painting as a ‘highly questionable’ pursuit
Ella Kruglyanskaya’s exhibition, ‘Shadows’ at Thomas Dane Gallery, is the first in a series of three this year, with openings in Basel and New York to follow
By Hannah Silver
-
The art of the textile label: how British mill-made cloth sold itself to Indian buyers
An exhibition of Indo-British textile labels at the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP) in Bengaluru is a journey through colonial desire and the design of mass persuasion
By Aastha D
-
Artist Qualeasha Wood explores the digital glitch to weave stories of the Black female experience
In ‘Malware’, her new London exhibition at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, the American artist’s tapestries, tuftings and videos delve into the world of internet malfunction
By Hannah Silver
-
Ed Atkins confronts death at Tate Britain
In his new London exhibition, the artist prods at the limits of existence through digital and physical works, including a film starring Toby Jones
By Emily Steer
-
Tom Wesselmann’s 'Up Close' and the anatomy of desire
In a new exhibition currently on show at Almine Rech in London, Tom Wesselmann challenges the limits of figurative painting
By Sam Moore
-
A major Frida Kahlo exhibition is coming to the Tate Modern next year
Tate’s 2026 programme includes 'Frida: The Making of an Icon', which will trace the professional and personal life of countercultural figurehead Frida Kahlo
By Anna Solomon
-
A portrait of the artist: Sotheby’s puts Grayson Perry in the spotlight
For more than a decade, photographer Richard Ansett has made Grayson Perry his muse. Now Sotheby’s is staging a selling exhibition of their work
By Hannah Silver
-
From counter-culture to Northern Soul, these photos chart an intimate history of working-class Britain
‘After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 – 2024’ is at Edinburgh gallery Stills
By Tianna Williams