First up , Richmond Street Tea Rooms , Bloom Street . Manchester – right in the city centre . Having worked with the clients previously , they were quite happy to give us a fairly loose brief on this , as long as it was ‘ a bit camp ‘. Fair enough . The presentation sketch shows a tea room modelled on Alice in Wonderland , and a couple of months later the tea room duly opened looking very much like the sketch. The afternoon teas are very good and hopefully there are more tea-rooms in the pipeline.

Click HERE to visit www.richmondtearooms.com

 ………..and a quick mention for Velvet on Canal Street in Manchester City Centre : we have been working with Matk , Sue and Sunni for the past sixteen years or so and have just completed the refurbishment of the basement restaurant , bringing into line with the hotel on the upper floors that we completed some eighteen months or so ago. If you haven’t seen it before , have a look at their website at www.velvetmanchester.com

We have been working on the refurbishment of the suites, lounges and stands for the past six months or so, but the subsequent promotion of the club resulted inenhanced schemes, a greater spend and a much tighter programme – we now have to get ready for the visit of Man U at the beginning of August  and are all watching Burnely’s progress with interest. For details see the presentation opposite.

Richard has been working on a couple of schemes and sketches for J.W.Lees…….

……and we are getting really excited about the opportunity to design a Steampunk bar in the centre of Manchester…….more of this next month!

Its nice to feel that you have achieved something – we generally try to work closely with clients to achieve something stunning, and to be recognised nationally means at least we must be doing something right!

If you haven’t seen it already check out the Velvet website gallery, whish shows the “dramatic flourishes” and rooms “decorated with great flair ……all in the best possible taste”.

www.velvetmanchester.com

 Elsewhere we have been working on a new outlet for Barburrito in the North-West – they still have to complete on the site, but hopefully the sketches (opposite) will help close the deal. It’s a good operation, having already picked up awards at the Manchester Food and Drink festival for Best Newcomer, and it would be nice to see more of these outlets appearing…………..and the food is excellent!

Finally, as I write, we are being briefed out on new interior works at Turf Moor, home of newly promoted Burnley Football Club – more news and pictures to come next month.

With regard to Barbirolli that I mentioned last week, our sister graphics practice The Purple Penguins, are working on the corperate identitiy and branding – it’s worth checking out their website as they do some really good stuff in the leisure industry, particularly for Wyborowa Wodka

www.purplepenguins.co.uk

last week The Lake Court Hotel at Carlisle that Paul has been working on opened its doors to the public – we did 28 bedrooms together with the grounnd floor public areas. … pictures are opposite, and we think that it looks very good.

The site had previously been a restaurant but had been shut for some twelve months or so; our client had already decided to extend the property – partly an old stone-built pub – and our brief was to provide a dining area with theatre kitchen , bar and champagne bar. We agreed with the client on a palette of natural materials – light stone floors together with French walnut flooring to the front bar area, limed oak vertical boarding again to front of house with custom built panelling to the rear dining rooms and the champagne bar………comfy furniture, and a lot of individual items sourced and selected by the client himself.

The restaurant caters for some eighty or so covers around the theatre kitchen and the display fridges holding the uncooked steaks for selection – the clients background in butchery demands prime importance being given to the quality of produce and its preparation. Together with the traditional bar to the front of the premises there is a cocktail bat to the rear providing much more of a ‘clubby’ atmosphere.

Drinking, dining – all in a relaxed atmosphere that combines traditional comfort with contemporary styling and quality service – and good food!

see also www.fencegate.co.uk …we designed the bar and the restaurant.

A stylish Italian restaurant

With pale floors set against exposed brickwork forming a backdrop to the imported Italian furniture – clean, modern, contemporary.

An upmarket pizza restaurant

Clean, simple lines to the interior, retaining the old range, with a conservatory extension and an external patio dinning area.