Eve Gower

A festival hosted by Penguin books to celebrate the end of the coronavirus pandemic located in the currently defunct Bishopsgate Goodsyard in Shoreditch is a chance to step away from the screens that have dominated our lives for the past 12 months and to make connections with real people again.

The main attraction is a 21 meter ‘Tome Tower’ located inside one of the existing wagon pits of this former railway goods distribution terminus.  The brave hearted will be rewarded with 360° views over London as they work their way through each chapter taking part in fun activities along the way.  Arriving at the festival, guests become the protagonists where they are greeted at the prologue by members of staff.  The protagonists then venture through the different chapters inside the Tome Tower and exit through the epilogue.

Protagonists choosing to enter the Tome Tower travel up to the three different ‘chapters’ each of which is based around different genres of novels containing different activities.  The east end of London is famous for its historical criminal activities, the most notorious criminal being Jack the Ripper.  This pod faces towards Whitechapel for protagonists to see where the gruesome murders took place along with a small exhibition displaying artefacts. There is also a reading nook, with a selection of crime novels where the protagonists are encouraged to sit and read.

Heading skywards to the next chapter is the Action and Adventure pod and on the level above is the fiction pod each with their own immersive activities.  Protagonists who make it to the very top are rewarded with a 360° viewing tower with a panorama of the London skyline.  Of course, once you’ve reached the top, the only way is down and what better way to do this than by sliding down the vertiginous tower all the way to the bowels of the disused railway arches where a train waits to collect the protagonists and lead them out to the epilogue via the Penguin Bookshop.