Berry Brothers & Rudd, London
The conversion of historic wine cellars to create a tasting and teaching room for the wine school.
This famous wine merchant has a range of historic properties in St James’s, dating from the 1690s. No. 3 St James’s is their famous retail premises, with offices above and cellars that extend underneath the historic Pickering Place courtyard.
In these old cellar spaces we created a new room and facilities to be used as the main venue for Berry's wine school, tastings and other events. The damp space had to be made watertight and modern services such as air conditioning had to be carefully threaded through the historic structure. Also, the main room needed to be connected through to a new staircase at the rear of another property in Pickering Place. The interior is simply designed with oak furniture and a zinc bar. A medieval well was discovered during the construction of the new toilet accommodation and this has been incorporated and carefully preserved.
