In a blue-tiled former mansion in Mexico City Sanborns (a pioneering pharmacy group) has restaurants which have become a national institution. As with much of old Mexico City this beautiful building lists erratically as a consequence of both subsidence and successive earthquake damage. Built in the 16th Century this gracious casa is a fantastic melange of both colonial and contemporary Mexico. Deeply worn cobbled and parquet floors form a fantastic backdrop for a contemporary retail space.
I got a glimpse of the department stores of old. Gloves on staff and impeccably starched uniforms which were more like folk costumes with rich almost Pradaesque stripes. Despite the bad press Mexico, was one of the most inspiring and evocative countries I have visited. I'll do additional posts covering some of the amazing architecture and homes I had the privilege of staying at in the coming weeks. One thing that had great meaning for me was the use and re-use of the buildings and structures of earlier cultures. This seems to be a unifying feature of global evolution... A sort of absorption of earlier civilizations to build upon the next.
Photo: David Plummer
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