Clerkenwell observations, on the streets and within the venues at CDW 2026

The last three years I have visited Clerkenwell Design Week I've discovered new things and interacted with interesting people, as per my glowing reviews in 2023 and in 2025. But not this year, because I found it has become more of more a hospitality event with unusual seating, rather than a showcase for design with occasional canapés. I visited for 3-4 hours on both Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. First stop was the booth outside the Farringdon station where, in previous years, they print the badges for scanning on entry to the participating venues. This year we were encouraged to use our phones. However, I'd had problems accessing the app through the QR linky code thing they'd sent me, probably because I have an old model. BTW: App. That 'word' makes me shudder – sounds like a disease as in, keep away, I've got apps. The lady said that the QR code was my tickety barcode thing, though that did seem strange to me and at odds with the text that accompanied it. Ah, but yes/no, it…