Home is Where The Art Is - Emma Berge

In this series, the team at Mobius let you in on all their favourite arts venues and regular haunts from their hometowns around the UK.

Next up is our Head of Press Emma Berge who grew up on the outskirts of London.

Check out our other entries in this series from Anne Dillow (from Yorkshire), Elaine Jones (from Wrexham), George Rennie (from Brighton), Frank (from Carlisle), Alastair Norton (from Wolverhampton), and Flavia Fraser-Cannon (Waterloo).

1. Can you tell us about your favourite local arts venues when you were growing up?

I grew up on the outskirts of London – so much on the outskirts that people will argue it’s not London (it is too). With a Tube station of our very own, a Trip to the Theatre usually meant going to the West End, but as a young’un it meant the Beck Theatre in Hayes or local companies and panto at Harrow Arts Centre. The Beck was Rod, Jane and Freddy (if you’re old enough, you’ll remember them) and Sooty, and I believe Harrow Arts Centre was my first ballet, The Little Mermaid; I waited a long time for the dialogue and the singing to start. They were both proper community venues, I performed in both over the years, and Harrow Art Centre has loads of great rehearsal space for dancers.

2. And what about your favourite local culture spots now?

I’ve moved further east, so my nearest venues are Jackson’s Lane and artsdepot. Jackson’s Lane is also a great space with decent wine, but after an unfortunate and highly under-researched choice of booking my partner is a bit reticent to go with me again (ask me the story about watching naked juggling performed to the song recently played at my MIL’s funeral). Artsdepot and The Union Chapel are a bit more his cup of tea (or pint), both have good comedy line ups; artsdepot has nice comfy seats, and we’re often at Union Chapel for the Saturday night comedy line up. We have our evening down to a tee: arrive when the doors open to put our coats on our favourite seats (far enough back to not get picked on, middle-ish for view, aisle for quick exit), up to the bar for early dinner, then race back to the bar at each interval (aisle seat for quick exit) to have enough time to down a drink before the next act.

3. And any other local recommendations?

Alexandra Palace. Ally Pally was my first outing post-lockdown, it has some of the best fireworks in London, and it’s also fun to see the occasional BBC live recording there. It has good beer and, in the summer, usually some form of vegan chicken burger from the food trucks.

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