Origin Kensington,
Royal Garden Hotel
Origin Kensington is the restaurant and bar of the Royal Garden Hotel, looking out across Kensington Gardens through a wall of glass. Its bespoke underbar holds a storage cabinet that opens into a fully working drinks station when the room fills.
Client
Royal Garden Hotel
Location
Kensington, London
Our scope
Underbar
Completed
September 2022
Architect
Viewport Studio
Photography
Michael Franke
The brief
Origin opened in 2022 as part of a major redesign of the Royal Garden Hotel, a modern British restaurant celebrating seasonal ingredients and British produce that has since been awarded two AA Rosettes. Viewport Studio designed the space in oak, rattan, grey stone and terracotta, with full height glazing running 45 metres along its eastern side.
The bar sits in the central section of the room, among lounge seating and bar height tables. The hotel wanted a partner who would understand what they were trying to achieve, help bring their ideas to life and deliver on a fixed programme.
A bar that changes through the day
A hotel restaurant bar lives several lives in a single day. It works differently at breakfast, through the afternoon and late into the evening, and it needs to keep the room clean and refined when it is quiet while being ready for the practical demands of a busy professional service.
We designed the bar to do both, so it never looks over equipped in the quiet hours or feels overstretched when the room is full.
Designing the workstation
The 5.1 metre stainless steel underbar brings together a flat counter, two sinks with taps, small insulated, compartmented ice well with garnish rail and speed rail, cocktail cabinet, shelves and bins.
A double door bottle cooler completes the run on either side of the underbar, keeping the working area compact and uncluttered behind the counter.
The bar run and back bar shelving
A working station with ice well, garnish tray and sink
The insulated ice well and garnish rail
A cocktail being strained at the bar
The standout detail is a storage cabinet that converts into a fully functioning drinks station, complete with a hook on speed rail. When the bar is quiet it reads as a double door storage cabinet, and when service picks up it opens into an extra station in moments.
It is exactly the kind of considered, bespoke detail we love to design, and one that lets the space adapt to whatever the day asks of it. The bar was designed by our in-house team and installed in September 2022, with every deadline from design through to installation met.
“From the initial swift response to truly understanding what we wanted to achieve, Cantilever worked with us throughout the process, helping to create a bar design that met all aspects of our brief. All timelines from design through to delivery and installation were achieved, and the whole process could not have been smoother, even when faced with a number of last minute challenges.”
Tim Fryer, Deputy General Manager, The Royal Garden Hotel