200 Baker Street had been Transport for London's lost-and-found office for nearly 40 years before Places for London asked us to imagine what could come next. The building is unusual, most of the lettable space sits below ground, so the brief was to find an occupier use that turns that liability into the headline. Our answer was a moody, indirectly-lit restaurant concept that leans into the darkness of the sub-ground floors instead of fighting it. The CGIs gave Places for London and their marketing team something atmospheric and concrete to take to prospective F&B occupiers, rather than a floor plan and an apology about the lack of natural light.
Exposed services, blue painted columns, sad fluorescent strip lighting. The basement that had been TfL's lost-and-found office since the mid-eighties was structurally fine but visually impossible to let. Our remit was to show what it could become.
A long bar lit by tubular strip-lighting that echoes the exposed services, a herringbone wood floor and a back wall of arched bottle alcoves. The sub-ground level becomes the destination, not the compromise. Click any tile to open the full set.
A counterpoint to the basement. Where the lower floor leans into the dark, the ground floor leans into the street, with greenery, pendant lighting, banquette seating and a more open kitchen feel.
A simple street-level visualisation showing the same restaurant concept reading clearly from the pavement. Green awning, signage, pedestrians, the lot.
