On the 4th December (which was also Helen’s 33rd birthday!) we both ventured out into the North-West of England and more specifically into Liverpool. Helen was born and raised not too far away in Widnes and so we decided to have a few days ‘Oop’ North.

The reason we were in Liverpool was to meet up with Laura from The Double Negative  in conjunction with our online shop and Notworkrelated adventures! Laura invited us over to their new office over at Static on Roscoe Lane, it couldn’t have been more appropriate!

Static is home to an artists collective combining the talents of tile-makers, hair-dressers, web developers, sound and installation artists and new tenants; The Double Negative. In the past Static was more known for it’s live music but thanks to a license issue they only have one off gigs now but do host social media events throughout the year and seem to attract a lovely bunch of creatives.

The Double Negative are made up of Laura and Mike and along with 40 other contributors they write about all the good things going on in the North-West of England. Really they’re there to keep us informed about what is going on in the arts, music, film and design world. We heard them on 6Music a few months ago with the lovely Lauren Laverne and decided to approach them about our Notworkrelated projects. They said yes and invited us in for an interview!

We soon realised there is a lot going on in Helen’s old backyard of Liverpool and especially from a creative point of view. We were interested to hear about all the DIY artists and venues that are around the city, pop up gallery spaces, gig venues and nice little collectives. Spaces we’re sure we’ll be passing through when we are in the North-West setting ourselves up.

A few places we’d like to check out for our very own field trip sometime soon will be:

- The new Open Eye Gallery, recently reopened down on the Albert Dock in a building called Mann Island (well its newly opened to us but it has just celebrated it’s first birthday!). The Open Eye has always been a gallery to bookmark as it’s the only dedicated photography gallery in the North-West of England and has been long established within the creative industry.

- Camp and Furness – this place sounds exciting doesn’t it? Its an alternative event space home to pop-up shops, bar and eatery, a photographic studio and a boutique hotel where you can book to stay in a caravan! From art installations to camera and comedy vintage markets and street food. This is high on our list of priorities to visit when we are next in Liverpool!

- Baltic Creative (The Baltic Triangle) also located down at Liverpool’s Albert Dock, it’s a creative campus. Once a warehouse district handling the dock trade it is now a growing environment for creative and digital businesses. With places to eat, music to listen to and art to explore.

It was a real pleasure to meet up with The Double Negative and we felt really inspired afterwards. We also ate some very scrummy food at Leaf on Bold Street, we can definitely recommend this place, you may have to wait for a table but the atmosphere and food is very inviting, plus their selection of teas are equally enticing.

Here’s how our interview went…

They’ve managed to context our travel experiences and photography really well and have written some lovely words about our Shop too! In case you missed anything all through January (Not long to go now!) we’re offering 25% off everything until the end of the month, it would be lovely for you to visit and have a browse.