We were approached by Thames Distillers & Ford’s Gin to create a new client experience area and unique cocktail bar for them, alongside the relocated distillery. The main focus of the project was to create a welcoming client experience area for new clients, brands and events, centred around showcasing and storytelling for the creation of bespoke gin, with a unique cocktail bar.
From the brief we looked back at the history of the site and the area (just off the Old Kent Road). The history of the area actually ties very much back into Thames Distiller’s rich heritage- including the former Grand Surrey Canal at the end of Ossory road. Along this waterway goods travelled to and from Surrey Quays, and the Thames, with the local area seeing importing and exporting of timber, leathers and all sorts of other produce. The bottle house itself, where the distillery is now located, was formerly a mineral water bottling plant. We loved the wonderfully London heritage story to bring the site back into use distilling gin- a drink so synonymous with London around the globe.
When we looked around their old distillery, we were really fascinated by the precise science of gin making, but also the creativity of the botanical choice and mixing. (They have over 2000 sample bottles from their previous refinement of client recipes) We wanted to create something that was gently educational about how gin is made, a sort of modern apothecary that reflected the precision and magic of the botanicals, but with a world class cocktail bar.
For the client experience area, working with Thames Distillers and Ford’s Gin, we were asked to design the perfect cocktail bar hidden within the warehouse. We worked alongside world renowned cocktail royalty Leo Robitschek to create a bar that was ideal for perfecting the cocktail craft, and a theatre for clients to enjoy and learn.
We visited the old distillery and witnessed the first commercial distillation of their unique soon to be launched Korean inspired gin. Understanding the process of how they make gin, and the wide array of botanicals at their disposal inspired us to think about notions of the art and craft of making perfume, and traditional medicine, so we wanted to create a client facing area that was a warmed up version of a contemporary apothecary. We sought to highlight the heritage space we were working in, yet provide a simple and luxurious intervention within – whilst telling the story of Thames Distillers and how gin is created and made.
The design intention therefore was a contemporary balance of craft and heritage using a diverse array of luxurious and reclaimed materials. In the client area we have worked with a spectrum of greens to create a calm and warm botanically inspired environment.
We took over an evocative but empty shell, and wanted to fill it with life, and warm up the space. We started with a beautiful reclaimed floor that has been brought back to life from a former mill in Bristol. We commissioned a four meter long table from reclaimed timber to create a dining space for 20, with a number of breakout spaces using midcentury pieces with clean lines in warm tones. We repurposed a massive chest of drawers to showcase their botanical collection, and reclaimed an antique shop display unit to house the distillery’s 2000 sample bottles, an extraordinary record of each gin they create along the way. Other items include a French machinists cabinet elevated and repurposed into the end of the bar, and a range of mid-century furniture to soften the space and provide breakout areas for meetings.
However the most crafted element was the bespoke bar specially designed for the space. Using a range of tones of green, we worked with a number of different marble suppliers to create the rippled green marble front profile, and the polished bar top and backsplash. The joinery unit behind the bar features illuminated marble shelves with gold mirror to showcase the range of gins, with oak display cupboards featuring two different textures of reeded glass. We reinterpreted and inverted the traditional cocktail umbrella into something much more precise and refined, with the traditional London umbrellas used as a dispense method for cocktails on tap in the centre of the back bar. The drip trays for the bar are made with a custom pattern of etched elephants into brass, and the handles for the cupboards are a custom elephant motif.
The bathroom lobby is filled with a jungle of juniper with a beautiful feature wallpaper, and the bathrooms with a range of glazed green tiles, and brass accents.
We used a range of lights, with the bar lights made from brass, porcelain and reeded glass in a design that evokes traditional soda siphons, and a number of reclaimed holophane lamps, and industrial bulkhead fittings around the perimeter sourced from a former power station. We felt this was a space that should celebrate the industrial, being a working industrial facility on the heart of London, but still elevating the experience beyond to create the ultimate cocktail bar.
The project was a fantastic opportunity to explore a new side of London’s rich industrial past and to allow that to continue through the creative reuse of some beautiful existing structures, and our love of using a wide variety of rich and evocative pieces and materials.