Bethnal Green
In 1993, Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas – AKA “The Birds” – took a six-month lease on a former doctor’s surgery at 103 Bethnal Green Road, opening it as a studio/gallery/performance called The Shop. While it never made more than beer money, the shop sold trinkets made by the pair in situ, including mobiles, badges and ashtrays bearing Damien Hirst’s face. Open all night on Saturdays, The Shop became a hangout, placing the two artists at the centre of a scene celebrating a rough, DIY type of making.
