Last weekend, Dan and I were biking around the Notting Hill of Brighton seeing where our moods – and the wind – would carry us, when we noticed something different about the two London telephone boxes hidden out of town on the edge of Powis Square in Seven Dials.
When I researched these tiny listed buildings for my Secret Brighton guidebook they were derelict and covered in graffiti, but on the day we biked past, we noticed they’d been newly painted and shimmering in the golden-hour sunlight.
It wasn’t hard to work out from the gold sign at the top that Brighton’s smallest listed structures are home to the “Dog and Bone Gallery”. Meanwhile, after a quick Google search which revealed they belong to local artist, Sam Toft.
It’s worth noting that that both phone boxes are kept locked, so if you’re passing, you have to peer in at the exhibitions from outside. If you’re interested in buying anything, you’ll have to get in touch with Sam herself.
‘I used to walk past the boxes all the time from my studio to the Little Mustard Shop,’ Sam told me. ‘They looked very sad, especially since they were sitting in such a beautiful square, I decided to find out if I could hire one.
‘There’s a guy who owns lots of these telephone boxes around the city and rents them out – so I got in touch and leased them for a couple of years, and set to work restoring, decorating, and generally injecting some Mr Mustard magic into them.’
Many of Sam’s paintings feature a character called Mr Mustard, who she says, lives locally and gets out and about with his grumpy fat Jack Russell terrier, Doris. Red phone boxes feature in lots of the scenes, so they immediately caught her eye.
The gallery features curated exhibitions which change every month. ‘Last month, we featured portraits of homeless people’s dogs by local artist Henry Garritt and this month there are self-portraits by staff who worked in the shop I once had.’
Fun fact: Certain people love the new galleries SO much, they leave presents. Highlights so far include a mannequin’s arm, and a pumpkin.
So, what do you think? If you’ve art work to show off, hiring the phonebox gallery is free, and Little Mustard doesn’t take a commission on anything sold. Find out more about hiring it, here, and follow the Dog and Bone gallery on Instagram, here.
Find the Dog and Bone Gallery at Powis Square, Brighton BN1 3HG and read about it in my Secret Brighton guidebook.
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4 Comments
Love this so much! What a brilliant idea! x
There’s a phonebox florist and coffee shop, too!
I love visiting Brighton and noticed some phone boxes just off the high street, in the pedestrian area opposite the theatre – one week a couple were cooking and selling falafel, another week it looked like someone selling vintage postcards, it seems they are padlocked when ‘closed’ and must be getting rented from somehwere as a ‘pop up’ shop. I love the idea – the ones you featured are fun too – a great way to use something that has got left behind by technology but is still very much apart of a British seaside town 🙂
This is brilliant!