Casswell Bank Architects

A restaurant and wine bar in Bloomsbury

Café Deco occupies an unusual Georgian premises previously used as a dairy shop and a London caff. The existing spaces have been given a new, casual European bistro feel; a gentle and airy bar connects to the terrace and life of the street through generous shop windows; a cosy, table-cloth chic dining room and kitchen awaits diners downstairs.

A relaxed character for the restaurant was developed through a resourceful approach that embraced the idiosyncrasies of the space as found. Inherited features such as inflections in partition walls, large rooms conjoined by smaller top lit spaces, changes in floor level, dropped soffits and freestanding columns were embraced to create an enjoyable spatial variety that differentiates areas within the bar and restaurant.

Mirrors have been positioned to accentuate the splayed geometry of the space and provide glimpses of life inside and outside of the bar. A composition of colourful unglazed porcelain tiles and warm timber parquet create different atmospheres in the bar and dining room. New characterful elements – the large bar, a kinked bench, counters, shelves, tables, chairs, coat hooks and stands - are not in fact completely new but resourceful assemblages of furniture and material salvaged from elsewhere and opportunistically reapplied. In a similar spirit, a figurative linear mural transforms the side face of a downstand beam into a high level frieze for people’s enjoyment.

SPECIFICATIONS

• Client: Anna Tobias + 40 Maltby Street
• Date: 2019 - 2021
• Location: 43 Store Street, Bloomsbury, London
• Local Authority: Camden, Bloomsbury Conservation Area
• Collaborators: Interior + furniture by Michael Marriott: Signage and mural frieze by Anna Hodgson + Harry Darby
• Photography: James Nelson
• Reference Image Credit: Archive photo of United Dairies, 43 Store Street taken in 1953, City of London, London Metropolitan Archive: Poster by Jean Cocteau, Theme Orphique, 1960