Circle Conversations | Alice Leguay
Alice Leguay is a cultural curator and creative strategist, and a key intellectual architect of Ladbroke Hall. Together with her husband, Loïc Le Gaillard, co-founder of Carpenters Workshop Gallery - she helped bring the vision of the multidisciplinary London space to life, shaping it into a place where art, music, food, and ideas come together. Having played a central role in conceiving and developing the venue, Alice has helped define its identity as a hub for creative expression and intellectual exchange, guided by a belief in culture as a living, evolving ecosystem, one that can inspire dialogue, foster community, and contribute to meaningful change.
Working at the intersection of culture and sustainability, Alice curates talks, performances, and community programmes that explore themes such as regenerative economics, environmental responsibility, and the future of creative practice.
ladbrokehall.com | @_ladbrokehall
Like many great endeavors, Ladbroke Hall began as an idea before it became a physical space. So what was the feeling or need you wanted to respond to when you and Loic first imagined Ladbroke Hall?
The idea was to find a new way to reinvent the gallery model, and Loic had been on Albemarle Street with Carpenters Workshop Gallery for many years with a white box traditional gallery concept and we both felt that there was so much more to the gallery's ecosystem and the joy and creativity around it than just the transaction of buying or not buying and then stepping away. So we felt we wanted a place to host this ecosystem of artists and collectors and thought leaders in this space.
When we first saw Ladbroke Hall, it felt like it was too big a space to be a gallery, and we didn't quite know how this vast building would come to life. But it was both the design of it, the history of innovation with the Sunbeam Talbot motor brand, and its beauty that we wanted to bring back to life. We trusted the process that something would emerge in how we wanted to use it. As it had a very strong identity in terms of being an important landmark in Ladbroke Grove, honoring the community around it felt like it had to be fully embraced.
Sunbeam Theatre in Ladbroke Hall. Image courtesy of Ladbroke Hall.
So you often bring together conversations around culture and regenerative economy. Where do you see the most meaningful overlap between creativity and sustainability today?
We're seeing the product of several crises in society today.
One is a crisis of imagination. We really struggle to imagine how things could be done differently, and that's where we really need the creative spaces and creatives to tell new stories and really change the narrative. That's where I find the most inspiration in that link. Between a regenerative economy and the creative space.
This crisis of imagination is linked to a crisis of separation. We feel so disconnected from the whole: nature, our creative selves.. Creativity is not seen as economically productive, and yet it is such a huge part of being human. So getting a sense of reconnecting with the rest of ourselves beyond brain function is incredibly important.
And then, we are in a crisis of courage. We lack courage to imagine and reconnect, so creativity gives us a way to step into that braver space alongside others and compound courage together through creativity.
Alice in Ladbroke Hall, with her dog Dora.
So how can an amazing space like Ladbroke Hall and other cultural spaces move beyond awareness into actual behavioral or systematic change?
I constantly need to tap into the energy of other like-minded people and changemakers. So the cultural programming at Ladbroke Hall brings them together, and as a community sharing values and connecting over cultural themes and questions is a way to step into action and activism. We've lost much of the capacity to create movements like artistic movements of the last century. They were born from community and organic gatherings throughout the 20th century but are much more difficult nowadays, especially in the global North, because they're channeled into commercial pathways from birth. So that's what we're trying to recreate here.
These cultural signposts then attract energy and community around them to ripple outwards, to ripple into more ideas, more friendships that might yield change in lots of different ways further down the line, and we relinquish control of that. What we can do is hold the space for the cultural conversations and connections to happen, for the people to gather around them and coalesce into hopefully action, activism and different worldviews.
The Library in Ladbroke Hall. Image courtesy of Ladbroke Hall.
You mentioned it attracts like-minded people, but what about those who are not like-minded, who could really benefit even more from a creative way of looking at different aspects of life and society?
I suppose it's where you're seeing the sweet spot for action in terms of how you can influence things and best put your energy to work. In a way, it makes more sense for us to gather people who are already thinking as changemakers, with open hearts and curiosity. That's why we say our Patrons are kind, curious, and creative. Because we feel that's an acupuncture point, that's a lever that we can tap into. Hopefully that core community can then ripple out into a wider community. We saw this when we had Amazon Sacred Headwaters and Earth Elders here holding a sacred ceremony. Patrons and visitors were coming in from their day jobs, from the bank, wherever they were having dinner or drinks in the garden and then they were pulled into this beautiful space and ended up blessing the moon and Mother Earth. They couldn't believe it themselves. So there is always that serendipitous way of tapping into people and bringing them into a different worldview.
What types of ideas or voices do you feel are still missing from mainstream cultural spaces?
The youth. Culture is largely the privilege of the white older middle class, and that's what we're trying to shift here. Simple steps like making ticketing affordable for example. When we had Lang Lang play here, tickets were £20 and many were free and distributed to the local community because we're really trying to invite more young people into these experiences. Our theatre is also open to young people’s performances from local musicians to cultural celebrations. They should feel welcome into both the physical and cultural space.
We’re also missing voices from the global South. We have a very colonial view of those myriad cultures. So we bring them in and move beyond crafts into telling the stories of the works - be they performances or physical works. And I know we could do better on that front.
Studio & Sunbeam Theatre in Ladbroke Hall. Image courtesy of Ladbroke Hall.
Has there been an event or conversation here at Ladbroke Grove Hall that changed your own perspective in some ways?
Yeah, actually, one is happening this Tuesday (24th March): I am hosting John Fullerton, who's really one of the leading thinkers on regenerative economics and regenerative finance. I took my first course with him about 5 years ago, and that completely shifted my mindset from sustainability into really pushing me to rethink the whole system. And thanks to his teachings, I wove his regenerative principles into this space as we were building it and really without realizing it fully consciously - and he certainly had no clue. Another that happened a few months ago is the British Pilgrimage Trust Festival. They didn't know if 20 people were going to turn up or 200 so they couldn't really commit the funding to hold the space here because they thought, well, what if it's just 20 people? We're going to make such a huge loss on this event. And that's where the beauty of what we do here is fantastic. It’s that we’re able to say, well you take it anyway and if just 20 people show up, we'll put you in the back in a small room and we'll bring you coffees or whatever, but we'll make it work. So let's be brave, let's do this together. And actually Ladbroke Hall was bursting at the seams for that event - people were standing at the back, three rows deep which was a beautiful outcome.
British Pilgrim Pilgrimage Trust is about inner work and connection to nature, connection to self, connection to community, and really rebuilding those small nodes of community like mycelium. So that event highlighted two things. One, is that compounded courage is essential. We can't do this work alone, this creative and change-making work, but also just how much we yearn for it as it’s so ingrained in our DNA. It gave me a lot of hope.
Amazing. I didn't even know the existence of this organization called British Pilgrimage Trust.
The new Archbishop of Canterbury - a lady - just went on a pilgrimage with them before being installed.
A female archbishop?
Yes, female. And it's the first time in modern history that an archbishop has gone on a pilgrimage, if not ever. And so I was teasing Guy Hayward, the founder, saying, well this is all because of your work, you're making pilgrimage relevant again. It's very much about bringing your own beliefs - it doesn't have to be a religious experience. It can be whatever you need it to be, you want it to be. So it's really extraordinary to see how this movement is growing. So we were very honored to be part of that.
The reality is that to us culture is a hack, a Trojan horse: art, the creativity, the emotion you get from sharing music, from sharing a talk with 200 people in the room, that's what builds community and society so the reason we platform all types of creative expression is because we want to find the hack that's going to reach deep in your belly. For you, it might be the food, it might be the garden, it might be a talk or a song or dancing to disco Bambino's 70s soundtracks, you know, everyone has their thing and we're trying to unlock that so that people feel elevated and connected. That's really the mission of what we're building. And we're just getting started.
Alice at Ladbroke Hall, wearing OYUNA past collection’s AYAL Jacket and NINA top.
What is an example of a challenge in this path?
I think one of the challenges is that there's no economic system that makes sense for places like Ladbroke Hall, right? We rent our beautiful spaces to luxury brands to balance the books, but we mainly just trust that the creatives would bring their magic, which is so needed in society. We believe that business would be generated from that as well, but we had to just jump in and trust this process.
You clearly approach the world through a systems lens. When you turn that perspective inward, how do you think about your own wellbeing, balancing work, family life, and everything in between?
I think some people are introverts and some are extroverts, and it's very clear to me that I really tap into an energy source through this work. If I'm hosting the British Pilgrimage Trust and I see all these people and the joy, and that's well-being for me, it fills my bucket.
I'm always speaking to people in the building randomly, I just want to know where they're from and what brought them here and what they're excited about and what they like. I make no assumptions, I end up in the most wonderful conversations with people who are here because their grandfathers worked in the car factory 50 years ago, and they just want to reconnect with the space and share stories of that. So I see this place as a magical treasure box of stories and narratives from this area. So that helps me feel energised about the work that we do.
In terms of wellness, I attend Sanctum classes here and what I love about them is that it's dancing, which is so uplifting. But also it's about connection: we wrap sessions with a silent disco altogether, which puts a smile on your face. Otherwise, we are very lucky to live on the river and every morning when I open my curtains, I don't know if it's going to be pink or gray or foggy or bright. I don't know if the tide is high or low. That is my own little ceremony. So stepping away from this place is important and reconnecting to the river everyday is really special and has been incredibly replenishing.
More occasionally, I attend retreats. This year I was away for a week in the depth of autumn in a sacred place called Embercombe in Devon. It was a deep immersion in reconnection to nature and to self. I slept on the forest floor by myself which I never thought I could do as I would be terrified. But by the end of that week, the forest was my friend.
Alice and Dora in the garden of Ladbroke Hall, wearing OYUNA LOYO Jacket from upcoming AW '26
By yourself, in the dark?
With the owls! I realized after a few days that I was no longer using my headlight at night, as you become part of it. The programme is called The Journey. I don't think there is anything else like that, but that certainly since has filled me with joy and energy and people coming to my life from it as well. So yeah, that's the wellness bit. I can't say that it always works because Ladbroke Hall is all consuming and I could be here every night. I missed the talks this week because I wanted to be home, so I am learning to unplug.
You're a loyal customer for Oyuna. can you tell us just in one sentence maybe how our pieces make you feel?
One sentence is going to be a challenge. But two things come to mind. One is the design, which is exquisite and not only is it exquisite, from the sensation on my skin to how it falls to how I feel in wearing the pieces. That's one thing. But also the authenticity of the pieces. Like the authenticity of your story and the work that you do which is so complex: sourcing these materials, being a part of a system, being a systems thinker from the sprouting of the grass on those plains that is going to feed the goats who provide this extraordinary fibre, to the crafting and transformation. To then honour that through the design makes me feel I'm wearing a whole story, and that's beyond the fact that I think I look great in them.
Blue?
Ocean.
Softness?
Babies' feet.
Strength?
Women.
Beauty?
Starry sky.
