London can seem like an endless metropolis, impossible to navigate or even know where to start. Dig a bit deeper, though and you’ll find that London is really a collection of interrelated boroughs, a series of small towns. If you are looking to navigate your way through east London’s Shoreditch area, Urban Species is a great place to start. Owner Sarah and her son Hash, own and run the store located just off of Brick Lane, though they are just as much conduits for the creative community as they are simple shop owners.

Urban Species have their own lines of clothing and art, are DC Comics licensees, and are also an events company bringing together local artists, designers, dancers, musicians, even special effects make-up artists to produce exhibitions and club nights around town.

I recently met with Sarah to talk about the store and what’s on this year at Urban Species. Sarah tipped me off that we can expect to see a series of pop up shops being installed, the first of which is from the brand Moneypenny. Sarah is also one of the kindest and most welcoming people I’ve met in the area, which is why I would definitely suggest popping in if you get the chance and chatting with Sarah, Hash and the whole Urban Species gang for some insider tips on Shoreditch.

- Jessica Ainlay, Contributor

Kevin Caruth of Urban Gentry was showing me around Shoreditch and Brick Lane in East London last week.  We were checking out a few indie shops in on Cheshire street, when I spotted that robotic sprite from Forbidden Planet, Robby, in a shop Window display.

I found to my surprise, a whole store dedicated to Vintage robots.  Drop your old comodore 64 game codebook and Atari T-shirt into the trash can, because this is old school nerdery at its finest. I was planning on writing something up about it, but then owner John Kelly sent me an email describing his store and ethos.  I was,  too say the least, simply charmed.  Consequently, I’m just going to pass it straight along unedited.  (Sorry for the long quote Jeremy – somethings just speak for themselves).

THUS spake John Kelly:

“My shop is really called THUS but everyone knows it as the Robot Shop, principally because it mostly sells clockwork robots and selected tin toys. Apart from possibly the largest selection of tin robots, all working and all perfect replicas of original robots, made in the same Japanese factories as the originals, now transplanted to China, I sell clockwork mice, snapping crocodiles, pecking roosters, bluebirds and hopping frogs, all at remarkably cheap prices. The most expensive item – an original Matmos Lava Lamp, is £55.00.

A warm welcome and good conversation is free. The shop looks like a comfortable if eccentric living room, with rare kilims, wooden floors, Balinese dance masks and glass and chrome cube cabinets, straight out of the 1950s. I keep shop because I like people even more than robots. My son, Ned, helps on Saturdays because he likes girls. We both like New Orleans funk, so you’re likely to hear that stuff in the shop: no bad thing.

We play it as it lays. The shop sign proclaims ‘Open at Random (It’s true – it was closed when I was there), but invariably 1-5 pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Some people are saying it’s one of the coolest shops in Shoreditch. That’s very nice to hear, since it’s entirely accidental and I’m very, very lazy. I just like to see people enjoy themselves. Honest.”

You can find THUS (the Robot Shop) at:
20 Cheshire St
London E2 6EH
0797 4155031

PS – Bonus points to anyone who can identify all the bots in the picture.