Client: Company of Cooks
Project: Bench Café

Bench Café is located in the Goldsmith’s Centre in Britton Street in the heart of Clerkenwell. Managed by Company of Cooks, the café is housed in a distinctive building with large arched windows. It caters to students, residents, local workers and visitors to the area, serving food made with fresh and seasonal ingredients sourced from local UK suppliers. Through its partnership with the Goldsmiths’ Centre, every purchase supports jewellers and silversmiths in learning craft and business skills for successful creative careers.

We were commissioned by Company of Cooks to collaborate with them and the Bench team on refreshing the café’s interiors and achieving six key things: increasing the number of covers, introducing more comfortable seating to complement the existing options, improving circulation throughout the café and to the main service counter, adding a retail element, overcoming the harsh acoustics in the venue, and redesigning the serving counter to facilitate a bar offer in the evenings.

interior design

The serving counter was redesigned to accommodate a seamless, inter-changeable hot and chilled induction panel, which we recessed flush into a countertop. In addition, we added a new high-level gantry to provide storage for wine glasses and bottles and display plants. Behind the new counter/bar are chalk-board style menu boards and shelved displays of coffee bags from Union Hand-Roasted and Well Grounded.

To help counter the acoustics problem we added ceiling mounted panels from The Acoustic Company, adding these to the existing acoustic wall mounted panels which display the work of the centre.

We addressed the number of covers and the inclusion of more comfortable seating by reconfiguring the arrangement of the tables and chairs and introducing back-to-back upholstered banquette seating with accompanying resin marble tables and leather cushioned chairs. The new seating increased the number of covers by 16. The new arrangement of tables and chairs also improved the flow of the café and eased congestion around the serving counter.

To introduce a retail dimension to the café we created a display wall featuring shelved units for epicurean products like wines, sauces and relishes. The display is accompanied by signage with the message. “From our kitchen to yours to be enjoyed at home”. Underneath its counter are a series of glass fronted beverage fridges for self-serve, ‘grab & go’ customers.