Waugh Thistleton

The team at Waugh Thistleton have made London’s Shoreditch their real-life portfolio, designing a fair proportion of the lively bars and restaurants in close proximity to their studio. Principals Anthony Thistleton and Andrew Waugh set up the business three years ago after studying architecture, and the group quickly found success with its extension of the popular Cantaloupe bar/ restaurant on Charlotte Road, following this up with the nearby Hoxton Furnace pizzeria (pictured left). It now oversees a fast-growing team working on a range of bars, homes and offices. Its latest is The Light, a bar/ restaurant/ members’ club in a former electricity power station which has just opened on Shoreditch High Street. Next up is a similar venture in Clapham, a new Yo! Sushi, offices in Shoreditch, premises for several digital media companies in Soho and shops and concessions in London and New York for designer Anya Hindmarch. Waugh Thistleton avoids a house-style, preferring an effective but simple modernity. ‘It’s modern, but [it is] a classic approach, using the right method and materials in response to the brief,’ says Thistleton. Unusually, the group was recently shortlisted for a £20m, 16-storey office development in Liverpool, and hopes to develop the architectural side of the business as well as continuing with more of the smaller projects.