Raven Row

Great historical building housing an amazing gallery. Location is great for a day exploring east London and feels like a quiet spot in between the hustle and bustle

I popped in today after a neighbour told me about the plays here. One of the actresses who works in the play here told me about the performances too. Staff Felix and Yasmine were very friendly and welcoming. But I didn't have the time today to attend the performance. But definitely looking forward to attending one of these performances. And hopefully one of the art exhibitions too. The gallery website isn't very informative. Can't find the performances listed anywhere. Maybe it's intentional. Given the limited space?

The website needs updating. The gallery doesn't seem to get the promotion and marketing right. Not much details about the performances. If you're doing plays then market it properly. I work in the neighbourhood and know many locals. None of them have anything good to say about this place. Staff not efficient enough. The first and last time I queued for an exhibition, many people couldn't get in as the opening times were messed up. Disorganised and inefficient. They need a proper manager to make things run smoothly. Even the staff I met said management is not good with advertising and promotion. This is quite common these days. People are so disorganised, disoriented and delusional. Reception staff were more interested in checking their phones than talking to visitors. The owner of the gallery, take note.

The quality of display at this gallery is always top notch and it presents fascinating work often by artists whose works are nit as well known as they deserve.

We were very surprised, the curation was eclectic and dynamic. Very inspiring and amazing that it was free.

I went to the Brecht performance or rather didnt. Very rude people on the door, pretty chaotic organisation so I only saw the exhibition. My friends saw the performance and said it was dreadful. On reflection I am glad I missed it . It's a pity because it's a great location

Gorgeous building and gallery with very interesting exhibitions

Excellent! Very good quality, well kept, imaginative and varied in environment and lovely staff working there! The guy on reception was particularly friendly, helping me understand the background of the gallery and the best bits to see. Oh, and it's completely free too!

My girlfriend being a designer dragged me to an art gallery the other day. Now I love art, but, it has to have a certain dimension to it. I'm not being picky, I just want to see something that I couldn't do. (Now for my rant) I get irritated when I go to a gallery and there in front of me in all its glory is an A4 piece of paper with a blue square on it. No frills, no beautiful flowing brush strokes, just a blue square. Now you can put all the artistic blurb you want as a write up but it 'ain't gonna impress me.' Fortunately the Ray Johnson Please Add to and Return gallery wasn't like this. Ray Johnson was the pioneer for the mail art movement. The movement is where he would start a piece of art and mail it to somebody else, they would add to it and send it back, and on it went like this until the piece was deemed complete. The percentage of his work is collages, that in the beginning of the exhibit I couldn't connect with. As the exhibit went on I found I was coming around to Ray's extraordinary ability to combine complete randomness, humour and skill in his work. What truly inspired me about Ray's collection wasn't his art, but his random letters and snippets of notes he wrote when he forwarded his work to colleagues and friends. His mind fluctuated like an arachnophobia suffers bum-hole whilst watching, well, Arachnophobia. His chat was hilarious, he would have made a sensational yelper. One of my favourite letters was "THIS IS JUST TO SAY" I have eaten the limes that were in the iceb ox and which y ou were probably saving for breakfast forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold (The mistakes were as he made them) Ray's collection is bizarre, imaginative and often funny. His work is theoretical in approach and follows the Gestalt laws. Occasionally though he throws artistic theory out of the window with pieces that cause the viewer anxiety. If you are interested in collage or font, you should go to this exhibit. It is entertaining, creative cheese for the mind and best of all, free.

Marvelous gallery owned & run by Alex Sainsburythe socialist son of the famous family. This is a mustsee place.Even if you dont see an erxhibition,a visitis worth it for the buidling alone.I went on a fabulous, free organised walk with a localhistorian, who showed us all the famous buildingsassociated with the silk & fashion trade of the 17th& 18th centuries in the area. Most houses were bothlived & worked in, & attempts were even made to growmulberry trees in the house gardens for the silk worms.English climate prevented this, so silk was imported& woven here & stretched on the lawns or "tenterdowns'with 'tenter hooks' to make the clothes for the rich famous. Street names reflect this industry