Stiff & Trevillion works on The Arts Club refurbishment

Work has just begun on the interiors and is expected to be completed in nine months. Stiff & Trevillion is understood to have beaten consultancies including musician Lenny Kravitz’s interiors group Kravitz Design and Be Creative in a creative pitch before being appointed in October 2009.

’Some rooms will be totally refurbished,’ says Stiff & Trevillion co-founder Richard Blandy, who aims to integrate contemporary designs into the147-year-old structure. The building comprises original Georgian features as well as post-war restoration work, carried out following extensivebomb damage during World War II.

Just beyond 40 Dover Street’s traditional entrance hall and staircase, Blandy will install the Bronze Bar, which will incorporate some features salvaged from a previous project by the practice – the St Alban restaurant, which has shut down. Banquettes from the restaurant are being reclaimed and re-upholstered.

Blandy says ’a cosy and casual seating area’ will be designed in the bar space. All the rooms will reference a colour scheme designed by artist and club member Maurice Cockerell, according to Blandy. He could not confirm what the palette is, but says it will use ’positive colour’.

Cockerell has also been commissioned to produce an artwork that will hang behind the bar, says Blandy. A downstairs area will serve as a studio for The Arts Club’s patrons, most of whom are either artists or authors.

’It’s to be an informal space – very casual. Somewhere you can get your easel or your laptop out,’ says Blandy. The low-ceilinged first-floor restaurant has been redesigned with a new centrepiece ’club table’ in mind. ’It’s going to be a convivial place to dine, with the addition of purpose-built booths,’ Blandy says.

The main kitchen will also be removed and reconfigured as part of the overhaul. Lambie-Nairn has ’basically finalised’ the new identity for The Arts Club, according to the consultancy’s chief executive Christian Schroeder.

Branding, print materials and website will carry ’an overarching new visual and experiential identity’, which may launch ahead of the proposed November opening date, he says.