Mason & Taylor, Bethnal Green

Client: Mason and Co Ltd

Location: Shoreditch, London

Area: 300 sqm

Value: £150,000

Procurement: Construction Management

The brief set was to renovate an established (and chaotic) Mexican party bar in a challenging building into a refined modern(ist) take on the pub, selling a wide range of craft ales and a modern/classic English menu. The lower floors were to house the kitchen and an events space for small concerts and spoked word.

We faced a number of design challenges;

Time – 8 weeks from site occupation to completion which ran concurrent with design process.

Budget – £150,000 inclusive of design fees for all works, including beer cellar, furniture, two bars and stripping out 400sqm.

Existing building – An anonymous contemporary residential block, but with a generous glazed frontage to a busy East London thoroughfare.

Style – Contemporary, but without losing reference to classic English fare.

The cast concrete Ground floor bar references lost East End boozers – a contemporary relic. The highly glossed recycled formwork from the concrete are used to create the Basement bar. We used ‘Traditional ‘ English fittings elevated from Surbiton to chi-chi: anaglypta wallpaper, tweed upholstery, sideboards and 50’s cut-glass lights linked with bright flashes of cable fan vault the GF bar.

The utilitarian efficiency of the British road sign forms a branding suite linking through the Shop window manifestation to beer menus that sit on the restored furniture.