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Duality
Duality
is a relative newcomer to the New London scene, and,
to be honest, most people aren’t quite sure
what to make of it. Of course, it doesn’t help
that Duality isn’t easy to describe when someone
asks what it is, nor is it really a single establishment,
but rather, it’s two.
Located
on the outskirts of one of the more fashionable areas
of the Claireau Quarter, Duality rests underneath
a tattoo parlour and a number of offices on the floors
above. The signage is visible from the street, a mixture
of black and white with several Chinese characters,
the Tai-Chi, or Yin-Yang symbol, and the world ‘Duality’
being the only defining characteristics. However,
you must actually approach the building and descend
a set of stone stairs to reach the front, which is
fronted in glass. At the back of the establishment,
the ground level is a little lower, and the plate-glass
wall looks out over a small, ornate Chinese garden
that always seems to catch the light, which then pours
in through the glass and into Duality. The garden
is very traditional in its layout, with a small, bubbling
fountain feeding a tiny stream, a mixture of stone
and native Chinese plants, the sound of wind chimes
and the delicate smell of incense in the air.
Inside
Duality itself, the function and atmosphere changes
with the time of day. During the hours of daylight,
it seems to be some kind of Chinese medicinal and
health drink shop akin to a café that people
have started to subtitle ‘Purity’. People
walk down from the street into the clean white space,
decorated carefully with the odd splash of black or
red or gold, Tang dynasty sculptures and beautifully
painted Chinese screens and murals. They sit and listen
to the soothing Oriental music, talk a little and
drink the various teas and restoratives on offer.
In fact, Purity at Duality is beginning to gain a
bit of a reputation for one of the best ways to relax
and rejuvenate after a long, hard day’s work.
However,
at precisely the time that the sun sets every day,
Duality transforms into something perhaps even stranger
still that people have begun calling ‘Tranquillity’.
Long, dark blue velvet curtains embroidered with thousand
upon thousand of tiny silver stars are drawn across
the plate-glass walls at the front, and the rear of
the building, the simple black and white tables and
chairs are carefully exchanged for large, soft, comfortable
sofa’s upholstered with the deepest of red,
purple and blue-coloured velvet, the entire room is
lit by hundreds of blacklight lamps that adorn every
table and surface and the establishment is filled
with the sound of downbeat, ambient and new age music.
The whole place has a feeling that’s part Jazz
club, part 1960’s hippie hangout and part chill-out
room, and it draws a crowd every bit as diverse. The
drinks on offer are still non-alcoholic, and predominately
flavoured water of fruit smoothies, but the people
that frequent it are known to bring their own alcohol,
as well as their own drugs. There have been reports
of Cannabis and Opium both being smoked on the premises,
although, so far, New London’s police force
seem to be turning a blind eye. Perhaps because the
people that frequent Tranquillity at Duality are hardly
known for causing trouble, being far more interested
in extreme relaxation and other, stranger New Age
techniques.
Duality
is managed by the Yao siblings, who each manage one
side of its business so that it can be kept running
almost twenty-four hours a day. Yao Shaiming manages
Purity during the day, while his mysterious and enigmatic
sister, Yao Mine Ue, handles the running of Tranquillity
by night. |
