project
riding house cafe
LOCATION
THREE SITES ACROSS LONDON
CLIENT
Adam White
COMPLETED
2010–2020
Redefining expected hospitality aesthetics through eclectic, story-based design. A journey spanning 10 Years and 3 successful bar openings in central London.
This is a collaboration very close to our hearts. Adam was the first big hospitality client to entrust their business to us in the early days of Box 9. He wanted to create a well-loved institution in the heart of North Soho. Riding House Café became infamous in London's hospitality scene for its game-changing design.
The founders came from a background of designing high-end residential homes and private members' clubs such as Soho House. We wanted to bring the personality of an eclectic, aspirational home into the public hospitality space. We rejected the idea that every surface needed to be perfect and clean and covered in something new and shiny. Rather, we created a restaurant that made you feel like you were in the carefully curated home of your most brilliant, well-travelled friend.
To do this, we designed a bar that had already been loved, told tales, and was ready to be filled with more stories. We scoured the globe for interesting objects, pieces, and makers, and when we couldn’t find them, we made them out of reclaimed timbers and textiles. The half-glazed coat cupboard doors, salvaged from a London hall, brought a beauty and a purposeful, handmade quality that our client would never have afforded new, nor would have been possible to imitate. When we struggled to source brass taps that had weight but didn’t cost the earth, we opted for copper pipes and stopcocks instead of cheap alternatives. The formal dining room is wrapped in old oak panelling as if it had been there forever. The white plasterboard ceiling was stripped back to reveal the beautiful terracotta ceiling. Here were the beginnings of the Box 9 design ethos that still holds true today: care, time, and effort to yield the right results.
Through this close collaboration with the owner, Adam White, an unassuming commercial unit was transformed into a well-loved, relaxed, intimate, award-winning restaurant and bar and set us on our journey to build things differently.
-
Runner Up – Best New Restaurant – Time Out Awards
-
In Design Live – Read Here
“Box 9 Design have provided both the restaurant and furniture design for everything we have done at Riding House Café’s. There has never been a stronger, more enjoyable, pivotal partnership to our success. Riding House Café was the first work Box 9 undertook back in 2011. The design was very influential to the restaurant sector, not only in London, but across the U.K and abroad. It is always entertaining to come across a chair, stool or item that Lou and I designed together in the most remote places.
The most enjoyable part of opening a new restaurant is working with Lou and her incredible team. They are wonderful people, making the decision to only take on projects which excite them, so they have been able to keep their team small, at an incredibly high standard. You may choose to work with Box 9, but you also have to be selected! I consider them good friends as well as colleagues with a similar outlook on life, I wouldn’t consider opening a restaurant without them.
The team are so creative, evidence is clear from their work. Refined, tasteful, simple elegance which stands the test of time. We have never had to refit a restaurant, we only refresh. A critical element to our goal of being neighbourhood institutions.”