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    Thirdway transforms Georgian townhouse into women-only members' club in London

    American members’ club Chief has set up its first London outpost inside a centuries-old townhouse in Bloomsbury, with cosy interiors conceived by design studio Thirdway.

    Established in 2019, Chief has locations in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, where women working in senior leadership roles can connect, learn from industry peers and find ways to drive more women into positions of power.
    Thirdway has completed the Chief members’ club in LondonWhen it came to designing the club’s first overseas branch, Thirdway was asked to maintain the homely aesthetic established across its US outposts while also speaking to the unique architecture and location of the townhouse.
    “We wanted a mix of what felt like Chief but with a London stamp on it, while also being sympathetic to the age of the building and the local London area,” explained Alex Hodson, a senior designer at Thirdway.
    A gridded ceiling and leafy plants nod to the look of an English conservatoryThe club occupies a Grade I-listed townhouse in Bloomsbury, which Thirdway extended by connecting it to an adjacent four-storey mews house via a glazed walkway, allowing enough space for all of Chief’s amenities.

    Members enter via a forest-green reception area that’s anchored by a wooden desk.

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    Arched panelling fronts the table in a nod to the townhouse’s curved windows, while its fluted detailing references the grooves on the building’s original fireplaces.
    Rich hues go on to appear in the club’s other rooms. In the bar, for instance, the drinks counter is clad with glossy, emerald-green tiles. Here, the arch motif also reappears in the form of the storage cabinets holding the bar’s glassware and wine bottles.
    Some of the club’s rooms feature wood-lined wallsPlump teal and mustard-yellow sofas were dotted throughout the sunroom on the lower-ground floor, alongside poufs covered with the same fabric that was used to upholster seats on London’s Piccadilly underground line in the 1990s.
    To emulate the look of a traditional English conservatory, a white grid was installed across the ceiling while a number of leafy potted and hanging plants were dotted around the space.
    A grand piano takes centre stage in one of the roomsAnother events room on site was given a slightly more sophisticated feel with wood-lined walls and vermillion-red velvet seating.
    Other women-only members’ clubs in London include Allbright in Mayfair, where the walls are exclusively covered with works by female artists.
    All images are courtesy of Peter Ghobrial Photography.

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    Pink-tinged paint store Lick pays homage to London's art deco buildings

    Dusky pink surfaces appear throughout the Lick store in southwest London, which local practice Oskar Kohnen Studio has designed as a “deliberate celebration of paint”.

    Lick’s store is nestled among a parade of boutiques on Northcote Road and is the first brick-and-mortar outpost opened by the paint brand since its launch in 2020.
    Lick has opened its first physical store in LondonTo honour the occasion, Oskar Kohnen Studio wanted to design the 55-square-metre store as a “deliberate celebration of paint”, which he describes as “one of the most immediate and most intuitive ways to create a space”.
    “We live in a time where interiors are full of marble and precious finishes and I wanted to do the opposite,” said the studio’s titular founder.
    Pink paint was applied to the store’s ceiling and part of the wallsPink-tinged paint store Lick pays homage to London’s art deco buildings

    Lick’s facade, ceiling and a majority of its walls were therefore painted a bespoke dusky pink hue called Northcote 65 that the brand created specifically for the opening.
    Walnut wood trims run around the central tableKohnen says this largely monochromatic colour scheme is a nod to the Northcote Road of the past.
    “Looking at old pictures of the high street shops from the 1950s, every one of those stores used their own simple colour combination to give identity,” he explained. “It’s so beautiful how colour was used back then.”
    The store’s floor has white and grey tilingIn the store’s central room, the lower half of the walls was painted off-white to create a contrast with the ceiling and in turn draw more attention to the loftiness of the space.
    This room was designed to have a distinctly art deco feel with the help of a handful of clean, shapely details. At its centre is a white oval table with walnut wood trims and a curved metal pendant lamp suspended directly above.
    “Northcote Road pretty much ends at the iconic Battersea Power Station, which has exactly those deco elements,” said Kohnen. “I’ve always been a fan of London art deco, which is somehow less fancy and simple, quite often just painted simple ornaments.”

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    Lick’s paint tins are showcased on a custom shelving unit, with one side finished in pegboard panels for mounting brushes, rollers, finishing tape and other handy tools.
    “I wanted to create the feeling of a workshop or atelier,” added Kohnen. “I wanted to stay true to the Lick DNA, making sure the store was a place one could not only pick colours but also try them out and get creative.”
    In this spirit, the store’s grey-and-white tiled flooring mimics that seen in the Atelier Martel – an art studio that architect Robert Mallet-Stevens completed for sculptors Jan and Joël Martel in Paris in 1927.
    Products are mounted on pegboard panellingShould customers want a more in-depth consultation with one of the Lick team, they can head to the back of the store. This area is centred on a vintage steel-legged table by Danish designer Nanna Ditzel and black editions of the curved 3300 chair by Swiss designer Bruno Rey.
    Another small seating area located near the storefront features a duo of sage-green velvet armchairs.
    Vintage furnishings feature throughout the interiorAnother striking paint store to be featured on Dezeen is Helsinki’s Cover Story, in which a number of unfinished details are meant to evoke thoughts of renovation and home improvement.
    Previous colour-focused retail projects by Oskar Kohnen Studio include a mint-green eyewear store in Berlin with towering floor-to-ceiling cabinets.
    The photography is by Alexander Edwards.

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    Wood and stone surfaces bring “rich texture” to Primrose Hill House interior

    Architecture for London has updated a 1960s house in London, creating an open-plan interior filled with natural materials and an improved connection to the rear courtyard garden.

    The house is one of two detached properties set in a modernist estate in Primrose Hill that primarily consists of painted brick courtyard houses and small terraces.
    Primrose Hill House was designed by Architecture for LondonThe new owner asked Architecture for London to transform the interior into a modern layout that is better suited to their lifestyle.
    “The house had a very broken plan consisting of lots of small rooms,” the studio’s director Ben Ridley told Dezeen. “The client wanted to create a family house that was more open plan with better views of the garden.”
    The studio added a rooftop extension clad in white bricksThe remodelled interior improves the connection with the garden by incorporating a large picture window in the kitchen, along with sliding wood-framed doors in the living area.

    The ground floor also contains a smaller reception area next to the entrance hall, with folding doors allowing this space to be separated from the kitchen and dining area.
    Sliding wood-framed doors open the living room up to the gardenA bespoke blackened-steel staircase provides access to four bedrooms on the first floor, including a main suite with a juliet balcony overlooking the garden.
    Following a detailed cost and sustainability review, a decision was made to demolish all of the property’s interior walls and rebuild them in order to achieve the required spaces.
    The interior was finished in a rich material paletteThis solution also offered the best energy-efficiency potential, according to Ridley, with a layer of wall insulation added alongside a heat recovery ventilation system (MVHR).
    The home’s first-floor plate was replaced using steel beams and timber joists to enable the demolition of the ground-floor walls and the opening up of the interior.
    Flooring was used to define different zonesspThe project also involved the addition of a timber-framed rooftop extension, clad with white-painted brick to tie in with the rest of the house and set back so it’s largely hidden from view.
    The extension contains a flexible mezzanine space for yoga and meditation that is accessed from the main bedroom suite.

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    Throughout the home, Architecture for London applied a pared-back palette of natural materials that is intended to create a sense of calmness and connection with the garden.
    Internal walls treated with breathable lime plaster provide a neutral backdrop for furniture including a dining table made from locally sourced London plane trees.
    Doors and windows are framed with wood”We intentionally didn’t use a lot of colour so there’s a strong feeling of consistency,” Ridley said. “The choice of stone and timber brings a rich texture to the palette.”
    A reference image of a Portuguese manor house, featuring a tiled trompe l’oeil frieze around a doorway, informed the use of materials to define space within the interior.
    The shared living areas have an open-plan layoutIn the living room, stone floor tiles in different shades create a border around the room, as if an area rug has been placed on the floor to demarcate where furniture could be placed.
    Ben Ridley founded Architecture for London in 2009 following his studies at London’s Barlett School of Architecture. The studio aims to create places that improve how people live and work, with a focus on reducing their operational emissions.
    Wood lines the interior walls of the homeRidley’s own London house recently featured in our round-up of five UK house renovations designed to improve energy efficiency.
    “Ultimately we are going to have to accept some changes in the appearance of our traditional homes,” he said, speaking to Dezeen as part of a feature on architects who have retrofitted their own homes.
    The photography is by Christian Brailey.

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    Office S&M unveils its own colourful office with plastic-bottle-wall enclosed meeting room

    Architecture practice Office S&M has completed its own office inside a former paint-making workshop in Hackney, London.

    With an entire wall of material samples and areas for modelling and sketching, Office S&M’s workspace aims to act as a laboratory to support its ongoing exploration of materials “that are both practical and fun.”
    Material samples are loosely placed to allow experimentation in the officeThe studio, headed by architects Catrina Stewart and Hugh McEwen, frequently experiments with materials and colour.
    For its own office, complementary shades such as electric blue, yellow, red and green, were combined.
    The office combines bold colours”For this workspace, we particularly used an electric blue and a bright yellow to contrast with each other and make the space larger,” McEwen told Dezeen.

    “At the same time, because the workspace is south facing, we used the blue to cool the light and even out the warmth of the sun when looking at samples or drawings.”
    The space has been broken into spaces for different usesThe office features a separate meeting room acoustically isolated with sheets of recycled plastic bottles.
    The plastic-bottle wall also works as a point of light thanks to the bulbs it contains inside.
    According to the architects, the recycled-plastic-bottle “provides excellent acoustic insulation””For our own office, we decided to use another common waste material, plastic bottles, but reimagined, to build a soundproofed meeting room,” said Stewart.
    “The recycled plastic insulation is easy to work with, and irritation free, compared to traditional insulation.”
    The studio also includes ergonomic workstationsThe space was divided into areas focused on collaboration, discussion and making to reflect Office S&M’s commitment to community-led design.
    “We live in east London, and do much of our work in the areas near where we live and work,” said McEwen. “This gives us really local knowledge, so we can make sure projects have the most impact and can give back to the area.”
    The building is owned by Bootstrap, a charity that supports emerging businesses in HackneyAdditionally, Office S&M added plants, air purifiers and ergonomic workstations that intend to maintain the well-being of its occupants.
    Other projects by the studio include a rental home for a young property developer that aims to offer a solution to London’s rental market, and the renovation of the Mo-tel House, a residence that features pale colours and bathroom counters made of discarded milk bottles and chopping boards.
    The photography is by Ellen Christina Hancock.

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    David Thulstrup decorates Ikoyi restaurant with copper walls and curved metal-mesh ceiling

    Copenhagen-based designer David Thulstrup drew on spice-making processes when designing the interior of London’s Ikoyi restaurant, which features a variety of materials including copper and oak.

    The 150-square-metre restaurant, which has a menu based on seasonal British produce and spices from sub-Saharan west Africa, is located inside the brutalist 180 The Strand building in central London.
    Studio David Thulstrup has clad London’s Ikoyi restaurant in copper sheetsThulstrup completely renovated the interior, adding panels of a specially-designed metal-mesh weave that curve up from the restaurant’s windows and cover the ceiling. The ceiling design was informed by the process of spice production.
    “I was inspired by sifting spices and thought the mesh could both capture and reflect light coming from the outside, the street light in the evening and sunlight in the daytime, but also be respectful to the exterior,” Thulstrup told Dezeen. “The lights from inside the restaurant will be captured and ‘sifted’ towards the street.”
    Decorative metal mesh was used to cover the ceilingThulstrup also layered materials to create a restaurant interior that references the “boldness and intensity of the gastronomy” delivered by Ikoyi’s founders Jeremy Chan and Ire Hassan-Odukale.

    The restaurant walls were lined with oxidised copper sheets finished with beeswax, while the floors were covered in Gris de Catalan limestone that was flamed and brushed to develop a hammered surface.
    Ikoyi is located inside a brutalist buildingThe custom-built furniture and built-in joinery were made from British oak, while banquettes, chairs and wall panels were lined with ginger-coloured leather.
    “I always work with contrasts and I like honest juxtapositions of materials that activate your senses – the copper that is warm in colour but cold when you touch it, the warm natural ginger leather against the colder steel mesh and the rough Catalan limestone floor against the warm English brown oak,” Thulstrup said.
    The colour palette was kept warm and earthyThe earthy, rustic hues chosen by Thulstrup for the interior were informed both by the restaurant’s food and the building in which it is located.
    “Ikoyi is placed on the ground level of the beautiful and very active brutalist building 180 The Strand,” he said.

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    “The restaurant’s gastronomy plays an essential role in the palette as well,” he added. “It’s not an interpretation of a dish but an exchange in colour and tracing ingredients back to their natural form and colour.”
    On arrival, visitors to the restaurant are also greeted by a large copper-clad fridge that shows the produce served at Ikoyi, with slabs of meat and fresh fish hanging from meathooks.
    Large copper fridges showcase fresh produceThulstrup wanted the fridges to remind people of where their food is coming from.
    “[The idea was] that we know where a piece of fish comes from and that we are aware what a piece of meat looks like,” he said. “It traces the story back to when the animal was alive and underscores that we have to take good care of them and appreciate them.”
    “I thought it would be a modern interpretation and celebration of our awareness of food.”
    Wooden and leather-clad furniture was used for the interiorThulstrup founded his studio in 2009 and it is based in Copenhagen, Denmark. The studio works in architecture, design and interiors.
    Previous projects by the studio include an office in Borough Yards, London, and the revamp of a winery in California’s Sonoma County.
    The photography is by Irina Boersma.

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    JamesPlumb fuses bulrush and hemp elements at Cambridge Aesop store

    London design studio JamesPlumb blended handwoven bulrush shelves with earthy hemp accents to create the interiors for this Aesop store in Cambridge, which takes cues from the nearby River Cam.

    Located on the city’s Trinity Street, the Aesop outlet was conceived as a “woven reading room” that provides a place to shop and leaf through books, according to the Australian skincare and cosmetics brand.
    The JamesPlumb-designed shopfront features a facade informed by leatherThe store’s understated shopfront is painted a dark brown hue informed by well-worn leather, which nods to antique book bindings in reference to Cambridge’s history of academia.
    Inside, a curved and slatted window seat doubles as a plinth for potted pelargoniums that frame the store’s light-filled, street-facing room featuring earthy-toned walls.
    Potted pelargoniums line a street-facing window seatThis space is defined by oversized, textured shelves created from freshwater bulrush plants – locally sourced and handwoven by rush weaver Felicity Irons of Rush Matters.

    “The city itself and the surrounding landscape were the starting point for our design,” studio founders Hannah Plumb and James Russel told Dezeen.
    “The River Cam plays a huge part in that – we were increasingly drawn to it and felt strongly that it sets the pace and the pulse of the city of Cambridge.”
    Hemp and bulrush form shelving and other cabinetryOther shelving in this room is made from hemp grown on the nearby Margent Farm, which was combined with bio-resin to form geometric slabs of cabinetry that display various Aesop products, as well as a large sink.
    “[The hemp] absorbs a huge amount of carbon as it grows, and to be so local to the project was wonderful,” acknowledged Plumb and Russel.
    “We wanted to use materials that were as local as possible, and bulrush being literally of the local waters made sense – both because of its beauty and tactility, and also because of the chance to use a material that would travel so few miles, and use so little energy in production,” they added.

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    At the back of the store, another room features walls painted in a darker hue than the street-facing space, which takes cues from the brown flowers of bulrush plants.
    Visitors are invited to sit in a low-slung antique armchair upholstered in floral fabric or browse the various books displayed on the same hemp and bulrush cabinetry that exists throughout the store.
    The back room is dressed in darker huesOriginal nineteenth-century polished wooden floorboards also feature in both rooms and intend to echo the outlet’s emphasis on local history.
    “Each Aesop store has its own character, and for this one, we responded specifically to its location in the heart of Cambridge,” concluded Plumb and Russel.
    Similar shelving found in the front room features various books on displayThis Cambridge branch is not the first Aesop store designed by JamesPlumb. The studio also created one in London’s Bloomsbury where water runs from shelf to shelf and a stone-based store in Bath that celebrates the city’s architectural landscape.
    Other Aesop outlets worldwide include a Tokyo branch defined by plaster and steel and a Toronto store featuring Victorian balustrades.
    The photography is by Oskar Proctor. 

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    Renovated Mayfair pub The Audley is filled to the brim with art

    Artworks by Andy Warhol, Lucian Freud and more can be seen throughout The Audley pub and its restaurant in London’s Mayfair, designed by architecture studio Laplace.

    The venue occupies a listed five-storey building dating back to 1888, which formerly functioned as a pub with rooms for staff upstairs.
    Laplace designed The Audley pub (above) and its restaurant (top image) in LondonNow, the ground-floor public house has been restored while the upper levels were converted into the Mount St Restaurant, complete with four private dining rooms.
    The renovation was commissioned by Artfarm – the hospitality company of Hauser & Wirth founders Iwan and Manuela Wirth – with the aim of upgrading the pub’s interior while preserving its original features.
    British artist Phyllida Barlow has created a colourful collage on the pub’s ceiling”The word Audley is English Anglo-Saxon for ‘old friend’ and the pub has been an old friend to people who live and work in Mayfair ever since it opened in Edwardian times,” said Artfarm’s CEO Ewan Venters. “We wanted it to remain just that.”

    “This area is so rich in culture and history, and where better for those stories to continue than at the local pub?”
    Mount St Restaurant sits above the pub on the building’s first floorFrench studio Laplace was selected to lead the pub’s redesign, having already worked on a number of Hauser & Wirth’s international art galleries including its outposts in Somerset and on the Spanish island of Menorca.
    In the ground-floor pub, the studio freshened up the woodwork and brought in a team of specialists who, over the course of eight weeks, hand-polished almost every surface of the interior.
    Restoration work was also carried out on The Audley’s 19th-century clock and fireplace, and a new chestnut-brown leather banquette was installed.
    Artworks cover every wall of the restaurantThe ceiling is now covered in a newly commissioned collage by British artist Phyllida Barlow. It comprises brightly coloured sheets of paper that were pasted into an abstract pattern, at points forming arch shapes that mimic the curvature of the pub’s windows.
    More artworks by the likes of Turner Prize-winner Martin Creed and Canadian artist Rodney Graham were mounted on the walls.
    The salt and pepper shakers take cues from artist Paul McCarthy’s Tree sculptureThe Audley sells traditional pub snacks while in the upstairs Mount St Restaurant, a full menu of classic London dishes is on offer.
    This first-floor space is jam-packed with art pieces including a self-portrait by Lucian Freud, a lobster print by Andy Warhol and an abstract landscape by painter Frank Auerbach that depicts London’s Primrose Hill.

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    The floor is taken over by a bold mosaic created by American artist Rashid Johnson and made up of different types of marble. Another American artist, Matthew Day Jackson, is responsible for the crimson-coloured dining chairs with wriggly frames.
    Art also inspired the restaurant’s finer details; the salt and pepper shakers are modelled after Paul McCarthy’s playful sculpture Tree while the lamps that centre each of the leather-topped tables are based on Swiss artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s work Powder Box.
    “We have created coherent spaces in which art and design flow naturally, avoiding the pitfalls of obsolete artistic or aesthetic statements,” explained Laplace.
    The Swiss Room is one of four private dining rooms on siteThe project also saw the studio create four private dining spaces on-site, which are available for hire.
    On the building’s second level is The Swiss Room, designed to celebrate the nationality of Iwan and Manuela Wirth, who founded Hauser & Wirth together with Ursula Hauser in Zurich in 1992.
    Here, the parquet oak floor was stained brown, red and teal-blue to emulate a watercolour by Taeuber-Arp.
    Palazzos inspired the rich look of The Italian RoomNearby is the Italian Room & Bar, which draws on the aesthetic of grand palazzos. Its walls are painted a rich mustard-yellow hue, while deep-green Verde Alpi marble from Italy was used to craft the countertop of the bar and the flooring.
    The building’s third level accommodates The Scottish Room with a nine-metre-long oak table at its centre surrounded by hand-carved chairs, each inlaid with a custom tartan designed by weaver Araminta Campbell.
    Directly above hangs a dramatic antler chandelier.
    An antler chandelier is the focal point of The Scottish Room. Photo by Sim Canetty-ClarkeFinally on the fourth level is The Games Room, which Laplace styled to have the feel of a “clandestine enclave”.
    It features tasselled ceiling lamps, a blood-red tufted sofa and a one-off rug made by Laplace in collaboration with the former assistant of French-American artist Louise Bourgeois.
    At this level, guests can also see the inside of the building’s turret, which features an erotic fresco by British artist Anj Smith.
    Plush furnishings fill The Games Room. Photo by Sim Canetty-ClarkeLondon’s affluent Mayfair neighbourhood is a hotspot for bars and restaurants.
    Among them is the recently-opened Bacchanalia, which features giant mythology-inspired sculptures by Damien Hirst, and The Red Room bar inside The Connaught Hotel, which is designed to feel like an art collector’s home.
    The photography is by Simon Brown unless stated otherwise. 

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    Dishoom Canary Wharf recalls 1970s Irani cafes near Bombay Stock Exchange

    Prolific restaurant Dishoom has opened its first new London venue in five years, featuring an interior designed around a “financial fraudster from the 1970s”.

    As with previous venues, restaurant co-founders Shamil and Kavi Thakrar teamed up with architecture studio Macaulay Sinclair on the design of Dishoom Canary Wharf.
    Dishoom Canary Wharf is the restaurant’s sixth venue in LondonReferencing its setting near many of London’s banking headquarters, the design imagines an Irani cafe near the Bombay Stock Exchange in 1970s India.
    “When we create a Dishoom, we always start with a story,” explained Shamil Thakrar.
    The entrance leads into a double-height bar”We imagined the fictional owner of the restaurant to be a financial fraudster from the 1970s who owns a cafe on Dalal Street, close to the Bombay Stock Exchange,” he told Dezeen.

    “This story gave us an opportunity to experiment with the aesthetic and feeling of the 1970s in Bombay, which, as you can imagine, has a rich history of financial intrigue.”
    The backdrop to this space is a high-gloss teal wallKey to the design is the retro furnishings that feature throughout the 750-square-metre restaurant.
    Vintage chairs, lighting fixtures and ornaments were sourced from antique dealers in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), carefully restored and shipped back to the UK.
    “The procurement process for each Dishoom starts with the sourcing trip,” said Ian Roome, associate director at Macaulay Sinclair.
    A vintage clock provides a focal point within the bespoke joinery of the barOne of the most important finds was a vintage diamond-shaped clock, which is set into bespoke joinery as the focal point of a grand bar that greets guests when they first arrive.
    According to Roome, this element draws inspiration from the lobby clock in Mumbai’s West End Hotel, which is located in the same neighbourhood as the Bombay Stock Exchange.

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    “The position of the 10-metre bar servery is, in our opinion, the key component in the restaurant,” he told Dezeen.
    “It creates an impressive focal point in the Permit Room bar, engaging with guests from all angles and viewpoints.”
    Restored vintage furniture features throughout the dining spacesThis double-height arrival space is naturally divided into zones by different furniture types that include low-slung lounge seats, banquette booths and cushioned leather bar stools.
    Rotating ceiling fans and rattan panelling – both Dishoom staples – also feature here, while the backdrop is a glossy teal wall that takes its cues from the Bombay Gymkhana.
    “We researched 1970s Bombay extensively,” said Roome, before reeling off a list of places in Mumbai’s Fort area that were visited as part of the design process.
    “They guide every single detail of the design aesthetic and tone,” he said.
    Retro wallpaper infills timber wall panellingThe dining spaces are more intimate in scale, set beneath a mezzanine-level kitchen.
    These spaces are filled with texture, thanks to parquet and patterned-tile floors, panelled walls infilled with retro wallpaper, and a mix of wood and marble tabletops.
    Seating upholstery comes in patterned fabric and leather in shades of green, yellow, brown and red. A family room sits off to one side, with colours that reference the stairwell of the Parsi Lying-In Hospital.
    The family room features green leather seating upholsteryThe Dishoom restaurants, which first launched in 2010, are based on the Irani cafes that were once widespread in Bombay but are now increasingly rare.
    There are now six Dishooms in London, including one in a former transit shed near King’s Cross station, plus outposts in Edinburgh, Birmingham and Manchester.
    Shamil Thakrar explained the concept in a 2010 interview with Dezeen founder Marcus Fairs.
    Old photographs hang on the wallsWith Dishoom Canary Wharf, Thakrar hopes to have created a stronger sense of 1970s glamour than in any of the restaurants.
    “It feels like one of the richest designs we’ve created,” he said. “The room furthest back feels to me like the Air India first class lounge circa 1973, although I’m too young to remember this of course.”
    “I also love the artwork, which works again to reinforce the character and the time setting of the protagonist in our story.”

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