The Aquarium L-13

The Aquarium L-13 was a contemporary commercial art gallery run by Steve Lowe. It was originally based in a Georgian building in Bloomsbury, London, and then moved to Farringdon. It worked with artists, musicians and writers, and specialises in more unorthodox punk-based art work, including Jamie Reid, Jimmy Cauty, Billy Childish, Sexton Ming and artists associated with the indie label Stolen Recordings. It closed in December 2008, and re-opened as the L-13 Light Industrial Workshop in May 2009 in Clerkenwell.

Name

The "L-13" is the name of the zeppelin whose bomb destroyed the previous building at 63 Farringdon Road, during a zeppelin bombing raid during World War I, on 5 September 1915.

Description

The gallery moved to Farringdon, but was originally in a quiet pedestrianised street near Euston Station, and called The Aquarium:

One of the first exhibitions at the Aquarium was of Concrete Poetry assembled by William English and including numerous pieces by Ian Hamilton Finlay loaned by Andrew Burgin who was one of the partners in the original Woburn Walk bookshop. Andrew was also instrumental in staging a Situationist exhibition at the gallery at which William English presented films by Maurice LeMaitre amongst others. Later exhibition: "Venus with Severed Leg", photographs of Vivienne Westwood taken in 1975 by William English in Sex; the shop on the King's Road owned by Vivienne and Malcolm McLaren. The Aquarium published a box of these pictures in an edition of 100 though only 40 were actually made.