The second phase of the project involved stripping away layers of late 20th Century and early 21st Century additions, literally represented by layers of moulded plaster board to reveal the basic form of the vaulted basement spaces. We worked with a light touch in that the walls, once stripped back to the brick and cement, where plastered and painted white, serving as a canvas for the art that the owners wished to commission on rotation to inhabit the space. The existing steel structural bracing served as bays in which to hang painting, pictures, etc.
The hanging lights, old Soviet industrial lighting, were sourced from Eliava market, a large second hand trade market and repurposed with bespoke brass fittings, fabricated by the same metal worker who had made the ironmongery for the café upstairs as well.
Curtains and curtain rails, lighting rails, hanging lighting and the central bar were all added to break down the space. The copper bar top references the copper bar in SKOLA Coffee & Wine upstairs.
The third room of the restaurant had a long, communal table with benches where film screenings during meals could take place. A small terrace provides views over the rear of the theatre and its working courtyard three stories below.
