Haus of Pilates LDN

Haus of Pilates LDN (HOP) is a small Pilates studio with a big personality. It soft launched in January and is located above Dexters on the corner of Fulham Road (number 567). Urban Village LDN caught up with its creator, Becca to find out more.

“As a resident of Fulham I have worked and lived in the area for the past couple of years, since returning to the UK from living in New York. I've happily watched the growing popularity of Pilates over these last 2 years, in particular reformer Pilates, however I felt like a lot of studios were popping up all over London and 'cashing in' on the movement of the moment and unfortunately really felt many of these studios were prioritizing quantity over quality.  This combined with many of the Pilates studios I attended having no brand consistency (for example you could attend a class today and really love the style of class, and go tomorrow and it could be completely different) left me feeling like I couldn't 'trust' a particular studio to really continue my practice with”.

We asked Becca what makes HOP LDN different “my mission is to create a studio running small reformer classes for Pilates bad asses!  We focus on quality movement (just 5 students per class) in a space students can trust with their Pilates journey. We offer three varieties of class styles while maintaining consistency within each of those so that students can familiarize themselves with our teaching style, get plenty of support where needed in the small class sizes and really notice how they grow in their practice with us!”.

Becca wanted to make the space “astetically fun and a beautiful place to be” and there are quirky features; think funky music, scents, lighting and disco balls. Check out the reader offer below so you can take a look for yourself and try a class. The class programme starts with Full Haus and after you’ve done three of those (entry level and suitable for all) you can move onto Blazin Haus which is higher intensity (longer holds and more challenging spring options) yet still low impact and finally if you’d like a little more cardio in the mix then Jump Haus is for you. To find out more hit the button below which will take you through to the Haus of Pilates LDN website or give them a follow on Instagram @hausofpilatesldn

READER OFFER: £10 off your first booking at Haus of Pilates LDN use code URBANHOP10

The City of Stardust

Fulham local Georgia Summers has just published her debut novel “The City of Stardust” and we were invited to the book launch at Waterstones, Piccadilly. Along with other Fulhamites, friends, family, neighbours and a growing fan base of readers we listened to Georgia in conversation with fantasy award winning author Tasha Suri. Georgia summed up her book as a seductive magical tale influenced by her love of Victorian literature and talked about how it started life as a “hodge podge of ideas and a short story I wrote at university”.

Violet is the main character in the book and travels a similar route, in her quest to release a curse on her family, to the one Georgian undertook during a back packing trip in 2015. “I started writing “The City of Stardust” during Covid and as I couldn’t go anywhere at the time, I wanted a sense of what I was writing about and to build a picture based on what I knew. I could revisit places and museums that I’d been to during that trip. I could go nowhere, Violet could go everywhere!”.

When we chatted to Georgia she told Urban Village LDN “I’ve always loved books and taken writing seriously. After I graduated I was a book seller for two years before going into publishing and I loved all aspects of the cycle. Having been a publishing editor I was well aware of the long process that is often involved but in the end it was very quick for me. The book went out to submission in May 2022 and I had an offer within a week which doesn’t happen very often”.

Tasha asked Georgia “what’s it been like being a published author?” Georgia’s response was “It’s been a relaxed and phenomenal experience. Calm in some ways knowing the process, the timelines involved, but with experience I could also see all the ways it could go wrong”. To round things off Georgia talked about what’s next, she’s currently writing another fantasy stand alone inspired by time spent in book shops, a murder mystery “basically about a book thief who inherits a magical book shop”.

Here at Urban Village LDN we’re only on Chapter Three of “The City of Stardust” but can report that we are enjoying it so far, it has an incredibly cinematic vibe to it. We haven’t read enough for a full all out book review but we can tell you that we’re already hooked and eager to find out more about Violet, Aleksander and whether or not the curse can be lifted and Violet’s mother found. Find out more and pick up your copy to support this local author’s debut below or follow Georgia’s journey on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/ge_summers/

All of the Above

We chatted to Fulham local Stefania Warren who, along with her business partner and best friend Rain Nicole, has opened a curated second hand fashion pop up located at 604 Fulham Road.

All of the Above will be open throughout the month of February and we caught up with Stefania to hear more. “I worked in-house as a fashion stylist for over 20 years for brands including McQueen, Roland Mouret and Missioni. After starting a family 10 years ago I found it a hard industry to go back into in an in house role so I started projects that could work around having children. Not being able to find classic children’s art for my children I created handmade water colour and pencil prints but I also wanted to get back into fashion again. I met Rain when our daughters were little, we’re business partners as well as the best of friends and have been holding pops in the Fulham area for four years now”.

Stefania told Urban Village LDN that as well as curated second hand fashion there are also brand new pieces and consignments so what they offer is “a mix but always curated. Every week we have new stock and at the moment we’re focused on coats, trench coats and classic pieces for a capsule wardrobe. We’re not seasonal we’re more about curating classic beautiful things!”.

All of the Above is open Weds - Saturday from 10am - 5pm. Head to the link below to follow All of the Above on Instagram, find out more and see what pieces and new stock they have available.

Scooperb

As we head towards the spring and summer months there’s a new arrival on Wandsworth Bridge Road that will be a great destination for post school and on the way to South Park dessert treats. Scooperb started out in 2017 and they opened their 10th branch in Fulham at number 279 last month.

After digging around to find out more, we put two and two together and worked out that the founder Jas Alg, billed to us as a business owner in the Wandsworth Bridge area with 30 years experience, had to be Jas who previously owned ALG. More times than we care to remember ALG helped us out of a pc fix or two back in the day! Small world and great to have Jas back in the area bringing Scooperb to Fulham, run by his son Banjeet.

All ice creams and desserts are eggless, vegetarian or vegan and the ice cream and sorbets are sugar free! Scooperb tell us they are “handcrafted and churned with very little air, resulting in purer more robust flavours and the creamiest textures”.

The flavours have been inspired by the aromatic spices of Indian where Jas spent his childhood and include: Shahi Gulkand a blend of delicate ice cream and refreshing Rose Petal, enhanced with pieces of Cashew and Coconut, Kesar Pista Kulfi a blend of saffron and pistachio and Rajbhog rich Indian ice cream made with saffron/cardamom and crunchy nuts. More traditional flavours include: coffee, chocolate, caramel and vanilla.

From 8am Scooperb will also be serving up hot drinks everyday. You can also order and enjoy milkshakes, waffles, crepes, mini pancakes, croffles, sundaes, baklava, cookie dough, sizzling brownies and more in store. ScooperB is open seven days a week: Sunday to Thursday 8am to 10pm and Friday/Saturday 8am to 11pm. 

READER OFFER: 10% off the whole of Feb for all readers who mention Urban Village LDN