Artworks by Andy Warhol, Lucian Freud and extra could be seen all through The Audley pub and its restaurant in London’s Mayfair, designed by structure studio Laplace.
The venue occupies a listed five-storey constructing courting again to 1888, which previously functioned as a pub with rooms for employees upstairs.
Now, the ground-floor public home has been restored whereas the higher ranges have been transformed into the Mount St Restaurant, full with 4 non-public eating rooms.
The renovation was commissioned by Artfarm – the hospitality firm of Hauser & Wirth founders Iwan and Manuela Wirth – with the goal of upgrading the pub’s inside whereas preserving its unique options.
“The phrase Audley is English Anglo-Saxon for ‘outdated good friend’ and the pub has been an outdated good friend to individuals who dwell and work in Mayfair ever because it opened in Edwardian occasions,” mentioned Artfarm’s CEO Ewan Venters. “We needed it to stay simply that.”
“This space is so wealthy in tradition and historical past, and the place higher for these tales to proceed than on the native pub?”
French studio Laplace was chosen to guide the pub’s redesign, having already labored on quite a few Hauser & Wirth’s worldwide artwork galleries together with its outposts in Somerset and on the Spanish island of Menorca.
Within the ground-floor pub, the studio freshened up the woodwork and introduced in a group of specialists who, over the course of eight weeks, hand-polished virtually each floor of the inside.
Restoration work was additionally carried out on The Audley’s Nineteenth-century clock and fireside, and a brand new chestnut-brown leather-based banquette was put in.
The ceiling is now lined in a newly commissioned collage by British artist Phyllida Barlow. It includes brightly colored sheets of paper that have been pasted into an summary sample, at factors forming arch shapes that mimic the curvature of the pub’s home windows.
Extra artworks by the likes of Turner Prize-winner Martin Creed and Canadian artist Rodney Graham have been mounted on the partitions.
The Audley sells conventional pub snacks whereas within the upstairs Mount St Restaurant, a full menu of traditional London dishes is on provide.
This primary-floor area is jam-packed with artwork items together with a self-portrait by Lucian Freud, a lobster print by Andy Warhol and an summary panorama by painter Frank Auerbach that depicts London’s Primrose Hill.
The ground is taken over by a daring mosaic created by American artist Rashid Johnson and made up of several types of marble. One other American artist, Matthew Day Jackson, is liable for the crimson-coloured eating chairs with wriggly frames.
Artwork additionally impressed the restaurant’s finer particulars; the salt and pepper shakers are modelled after Paul McCarthy’s playful sculpture Tree whereas the lamps that centre every of the leather-topped tables are based mostly on Swiss artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s work Powder Field.
“We’ve got created coherent areas wherein artwork and design stream naturally, avoiding the pitfalls of out of date creative or aesthetic statements,” defined Laplace.
The mission additionally noticed the studio create 4 non-public eating areas on-site, which can be found for rent.
On the constructing’s second stage is The Swiss Room, designed to have a good time the nationality of Iwan and Manuela Wirth, who based Hauser & Wirth along with Ursula Hauser in Zurich in 1992.
Right here, the parquet oak ground was stained brown, crimson and teal-blue to emulate a watercolour by Taeuber-Arp.
Close by is the Italian Room & Bar, which attracts on the aesthetic of grand palazzos. Its partitions are painted a wealthy mustard-yellow hue, whereas deep-green Verde Alpi marble from Italy was used to craft the countertop of the bar and the flooring.
The constructing’s third stage accommodates The Scottish Room with a nine-metre-long oak desk at its centre surrounded by hand-carved chairs, every inlaid with a customized tartan designed by weaver Araminta Campbell.
Instantly above hangs a dramatic antler chandelier.
Lastly on the fourth stage is The Video games Room, which Laplace styled to have the texture of a “clandestine enclave”.
It options tasselled ceiling lamps, a blood-red tufted couch and a one-off rug made by Laplace in collaboration with the previous assistant of French-American artist Louise Bourgeois.
At this stage, visitors may also see the within of the constructing’s turret, which options an erotic fresco by British artist Anj Smith.
London’s prosperous Mayfair neighbourhood is a hotspot for bars and eating places.
Amongst them is the recently-opened Bacchanalia, which options large mythology-inspired sculptures by Damien Hirst, and The Purple Room bar inside The Connaught Resort, which is designed to really feel like an artwork collector’s residence.
The pictures is by Simon Brown until said in any other case.
