For once an interior really can be described accurately aseffervescent: much of the walls of London’s Lonsdale Barare clad with large metal bubbles. Sitting between the cool,moneyed and media-laden Ladbroke Grove and WestbourneGrove areas, just above London’s Notting Hill, theLonsdale’s location meant that it was always likely to bepopular, but the real crowd-puller is the highly unusual

interior, which has had the design-savvy, cocktailcognoscenti humming with pleasure since the baropened in January 2003. The pale blue, understatedfacade lies at the end of a quiet residential street.During the daytime, it is hard to imagine that it holds either such an exuberant, futuristic design or such a peerlessly hip clientele.

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Charles and Adam Breeden with Fusion Architects, Lonsdale Bar, West London, 2003BelowThe bubble-cladding in the main bar is brass that has been treated to look likebronze. The Lonsdale was the first project by owner brothers Charles and AdamBreeden, who had a strong influence on the interior design.

Howard Watson describes how the Lonsdale Bar in West London has taken a 1970s Tardis-inspired vision of the future as the starting point for its verycontemporary treatment.

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Bubble Bar

Site Lines

seriously. The tables they surround are made from solid teak, sourced from protected forests.

Charles Breeden chose to work with FusionArchitects based on the practice’s designs for Momorestaurant with Mourad Mazouz, who went on to openSketch. A great fan of Momo, Breeden also used therestaurant’s audio-visual contractor, Sound DivisionGroup. Music plays an important part of the ambienceat the Lonsdale, but Breeden wanted a discreet, as well as powerful, sound system that could be regulatedindependently over the venue’s three floors. SoundDivision Group set up the DJ area with an advanced Allen & Heath Xone 62 mixer and installed a large videoscreen and projector in Genevieve.

The intimate atmosphere in both spaces is helped by the fact that the brothers Breeden continue to have a hands-on approach, and not just with regard to thedesign; they are still regularly seen at the bar. Theyhave created a unique interior that readily lends itself to the ongoing cocktail sophistication that has sweptLondon since the mid-1990s. The cocktails have theirown designer, Dick Bradsell, who is probably secondonly to Salvatore Calabresi in the list of London’sgreatest living mixologists. Further accreditation for the venture has come from Selfridge’s, the departmentstore that in recent years has been trying to associateitself (sometimes somewhat desperately) with the bestof radical, contemporary art and design; the Breedenshave created a mini-Lonsdale within the new men’ssuperbrands section, which opened in 2004. 4+

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BottomThe low stools in the main bar are covered with 1970s-style, fun-fur textilesand velvets. The skylight is crafted out of specialised fibrous plaster. It stepsup in rings of lighter colour, adding a planetary aspect to the sci-fi vision.

Howard Watson is an author, journalist and editor living in London. His book,Bar Style: Hotel and Members’ Bars, charting the international revitalisationof bar design, will be published by Wiley-Academy in spring 2005.

Working with Fusion Architects, with a budget of £2 million,brothers Charles and Adam Breeden created a design born outof a 1970s vision of the future: the Tardis would have lookedlike this had Doctor Who had an eye for interior design. Thesame design influences both the main Lonsdale public bar andthe private Genevieve bar upstairs, but outside of its own fourwalls, it remains one of a kind. The outstanding features arethe sections of bubble-cladding in both bars, which also extendonto the ceiling in Genevieve. In the public bar downstairs, thebubbles are made of brass, but have been treated to give theeffect of bronze. Upstairs in Genevieve, the design is the samebut the material is aluminium, giving the space a brighter,harder look.

The bubbles create an immediate design statement,marking the Lonsdale out from anywhere else, and it takessome time to realise the level of care that has gone into allaspects of the interior. Above the bar, for instance, the lightsare made up of 80 layers of glass that create a graded purplerainbow effect, while a section of the downstairs bar ceiling isdotted with bubble impressions as if the bubble wall has beenhinged down from it. One of the more dominant features of thedownstairs interior is the atrium-like skylight. Constructedfrom specialised, fibrous plaster it is made up of a telescopingseries of rings that increase in brightness as if reachingtowards a planet’s white-hot core.

Returning to earth, the bar counters in both spaces, as wellas the stairs in between, are covered in fossilised limestone.This is also used for the flooring of the main bar. All thebanquettes are covered with premium hide, while the funky, retro1970s look is further invigorated by a mixture of fun-fur patternson the low stools. These serve to add a little disorganised, sexyfun to the interior, just in case one feels that it takes itself too

TopGenevieve, the private bar at the Lonsdale, features aluminium bubble-cladding on thewalls and ceiling in homage to a 1970s vision of the future. The bubbles, custom-madeby a metal-spinning company, reflect the lighting and offer a warped view of the interior.

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