Organised by Oxford Branch of the Campaign for real Ale (CAMRA) along with our very own Matthew Bullock this year’s Oxford Beer And Cider Festival looks like it will be another great success. Gray Baynes & Shew very successfully hosted an evening of restrained and educated beer tasting for colleagues and friends of the office on Thursday evening.
A choice of 140 real ales and over 60 real ciders from across the United Kingdom were sampled in the sumptuos interior of the recently restored Oxford Town Hall (built in 1897 to a design by architect Henry T Hare).
It was a very enjoyable evening and all our guests went away with a commemorative beer glass.
Two down one to go! We have almost finished refurbishing the Boys WC’s, Science Laboratories and the Drama Department’s green room for Magdalen College School in Oxford.
The toilets had a complete overhaul with new finishes, ceilings and fittings. The labs received new flooring and fitted furniture to meet the latest standards and the drama department is being completely revived by opening up their green room and decorating all areas. Over the coming week we will be adding built-in storage to the drama department to contain all their props and costumes, and a folding partition to the green room so it can double up as changing rooms when the school have a production on.
The works were a last minute appointment in the summer holidays and we have worked closely with the contractors and the school to hand the spaces back with as little disruption as possible.
We are delighted to welcome Kristy Jones to our office. Kristy joined Gray Baynes + Shew as Office Administrator over the summer and is a great addition to our front-of-house team. Kristy has previously worked at 740 Designs having moved from Australia to England in March. So, for a friendly Australian hello telephone the office on 01865 305130.
We attended the Press Night for the ‘other’ Creation Theatre summer show in the beautiful gardens of St Hugh’s College. Not unusually for this theatre company this is a unique production and marks the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’. The performance starts almost imperceptibly with actors moving among the audience and continues around the gardens between scenes and settings. With the sun gradually going down, birds singing and the occasional flock of geese flying over the production takes on a magical quality. Highly recommended we think!
Fast becoming an annual event in the gbs calendar, this summer’s Creation Theatre production of ’As You Like It’ proved to be one of their best yet. Along with friends and clients of the practice we enjoyed a wonderful evening in the gardens of Lady Margaret Hall; another inspired setting. The play is set in the midst of World War II when Paris, and the rest of France, is occupied by Nazi Germany. The only opposition comes from the fragmented French Resistance to be found sheltering in the forest. With the College’s gardens becoming Arden Forest and a nod towards ‘allo allo’ this was a light hearted and warm performance by an excellent cast.
