Over one hundred galleries before 9pm

Every now and again London will present something which will not only impress and astonish you, but leave you buzzing for the rest of the week! It’s been a long time since this has been the case, and I look back fondly at the time I found out the IMAX was free for Imperial students, and someone told me I could pair my student rail card to my Oyster.

Well yet again London delivers and this time it comes in the form of free alcohol, more art galleries than you could shake a stick at, and a fantastic array of twee bars (that’s twee not free). What I’m talking about is an astonishing, somewhat mysterious event which takes place on the first Thursday of every month at precisely 6.30pm: the simultaneous opening of all the galleries in East London.

We chose Redchurch Street as the focus of our visit which is just a short walk from Shoreditch High Street tube station. The walk in itself is more than pleasant; passing by are the charming frontages of the local bars, the warm glow from retro chandeliers, and 1960’s interiors. For those who have never strayed out of South Kensington, a trip to the Shoreditch/Brick Lane area of London will quite literally transport you from the London you know to a somewhere so dissimilar you will need more than a night to digest it all.

The galleries themselves were not disappointing. Bunched up together on that lone street were about ten, each one a disorientating step from the other, and each one so distinctly different from the last. That’s what was so great about the whole thing; you’ll be in a photography gallery following the fortunes of Michael Hess as he explores the ‘BINGO & SOCIAL CLUB’, then step into another world of vibrant Dulux painted spirals whilst listening to jazz, hip-hop or house – the choice was actually yours!

I think it was this which was so fantastic about the whole experience; you were pushed and pulled through a series of completely different ideas, squeezed into feeling happy, and stretched into re-understanding a fear of cats. Some of the exhibitions were weirdly appealing, I mean who would have realised an angelic monkey was actually a stand against animal testing? Or that a school of fish in a sea of red symbolised the desperate problem of overfishing, and more interestingly the human/animal equality issue?

Whether you see faces in paint splatters, see your sister in a melting cat, or toads in islands, the experience is totally consuming and I was sad when the end came at 9 – far too early. Oh and I didn’t mention the beer. Either go to the larger galleries, or arrive early: confronting the weird and wonderful is easier with a complementary glass of white wine in hand.

Late Night Art runs throughout Shoreditch every first Thursday of the month. www.firstthursdays.co.uk has all the details.

Leonardo Fine Art and Photo-soc are running an open trip to the next, on Thursday 2nd Dec. Join them (join their mailing lists for information).