Is an old sandwich shop the future of London’s art scene?

The sign still reads “Sunset Sandwich Bar II: Hot & Cold Food to Take Away”, but a cursory look through the window of the tiny 7ft by 12ft shop, overlooking Smithfield Market in London’s Farringdon, will disappoint anyone seeking a baguette or a sticky bun. “My landlords wanted me to take down the sign,” says curator and founder Freddie Powell, who opened Ginny on Frederick gallery in the white-tiled space in 2021. “I obviously half rented this place because I was obsessed with it!”

With the overheads being so affordable (the single room “lacks some utilities”, such as an office or a toilet), Powell was able to open the gallery as an experimental weekend project while working for a blue-chip gallery. He named it Ginny after his mother, who helped him start his first-ever exhibition space in Hackney, and Frederick after his own name and the street it started out on. The zany location and Powell’s sharp curation quickly garnered attention. When his third exhibition – Tom Worsfold’s Good Fats, a series of acid-toned, surreal canvases exploring body image – delivered heartening sales, Powell decided he “might as well just be a gallerist”; last autumn, Frieze magazine praised Ginny on Frederick for offering “a sense of promise” to the capital. Recently he co-curated a show for Sadie Coles’ project space The Shop. There is “a magic feeling” when some spaces open, says Grace Schofield, who co-founded Whitechapel’s Union Pacific gallery in 2014 to exhibit emerging international artists. “It’s here for sure.”

Powell has an interest in “spaces that cosplay”

Powell’s programme thus far has been young and diverse, but certain threads run through it. “I am really interested in things connected to queerness and sexuality and power,” he says, pointing to Jack O’Brien’s sculptures made from contorted clothing, tubing and spiralling wire, and Eva Gold, who hung black rubber jackets and “Open Late” and “24 Hour” club and motel signs from the tiles. Next month he is opening a show by Charlotte Edey, whose tapestries explore interior space and identity. He believes his artists also share an “obsessive practice”. “You visit studios in New York and the artists are there night and day,” he says. “When I get that energy from someone in London, I can’t look away.”

That Powell has ended up in this “tiled toilet-wetroom-slaughterhouse” wasn’t “necessarily unexpected”. A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, he chose a medieval-themed motel called the Knights Inn in Massachusetts as the site for his first curatorial foray. In London, he produced a show with artwork at every station along the train route from Liverpool Street to Hertford East, where he was living at the time. He describes it as an interest in “spaces that cosplay”. He trained his artistic sensibilities on New York’s Lower East Side, where galleries such as Derosia, JTT and Chapter took up small shop spaces. His goal had long been to create a comparable space in central London where, by virtue of the low rent, he could take curatorial risks.

There are a growing number of exciting young galleries in the city – Powell names Sundy in Vauxhall, Rose Easton in Bethnal Green and Dinner Party around the corner – but the majority of them “are pretty homogeneous”, he says. Ginny on Frederick heralds a new era – both for the city’s gallery scene, and for an area that has historically been “somewhat nocturnal”, owing to the presence of the meat market and the nightclub Fabric. The Museum of London will relocate here in 2026, and Soho restaurant Rita’s also has a bodega around the corner. “There’s a little bit of a renaissance going on,” says Powell.

While some still journey to Ginny on Frederick expecting to find a sandwich shop, the reaction to the gallery’s presence in such an industrial quarter of the city has been warm, a “mix of intrigue, surprise and confusion”, says Powell. “Art spaces can sometimes be intimidating,” he says, but Ginny’s playful appearance overcomes that: “Once over the initial shock, most people get on board, with even a few return visits.” Most importantly, his mum is pleased. “She likes it – I think! It’s honouring her in some way”.

Beyond the white cube: the world’s most imaginative cultural spaces. By Baya Simons

A Maior, Viseu, Portugal

Meaning “the biggest” in Portuguese, A Maior is a fully operational superstore that sells practically everything – except food – while hosting a programme of contemporary art, exhibited alongside its wares. amaiorviseu.tumblr.com

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Bold Tendencies, London

In 2007, the art collective Bold Tendencies took over the top floors of Peckham’s multistorey car park and turned them into a cultural centre, featuring contemporary dance, literature and more. There’s also the much-loved rooftop Frank’s Café. boldtendencies.com

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König Galerie, Berlin

Founded in 2002 and since 2015 housed in a ’60s brutalist former church in Kreuzberg, this gallery focuses on young artists who take space-based approaches. There are two exhibition rooms available: the Chapel and the Nave. koeniggalerie.com

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Hin Bus Depot, George Town, Penang, Malaysia

This abandoned bus depot was supposed to host a single show, but the artists liked it so much they made it a permanent address. It now holds exhibitions, workshops, music events, film screenings and talks. hinbusdepot.com

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Bad Water, Knoxville, Tennessee

Formerly an empty wooden barn on a suburban street, this artist-run gallery space launched in 2018 to host shows ranging from sculpture to performance. The whitewashed wooden walls and barn floor lend it a faint eeriness. badwater.gallery