The brasserie will be the latest venture from the B & H Group, which also operates the Reverend JW Simpson, Blitz Party and Prohibition, and the Bourne & Hollingsworth Bar. The aim with the new bar is to combine the different parts of the brand in one venue.
Bourne & Hollingsworth Buildings is located by Exmouth market and features a 70-cover restaurant and greenhouse as well as a café, private rooms, and a large bar. The choice of eating and drinking spaces is intended to offer all-day flexibility.
Head chef at the brasserie will be Alex Visciano, who trained in France and has most recently worked as sous chef at the Connaught hotel. He has put together a menu which is a modern British take on traditional Brasserie dishes.
Brand headquarters
The Bourne & Hollingsworth offices will be located above the venue, allowing it to act as the brand’s headquarters. The group has attempted to create a venue that will have space for all kinds of socialising, from longer dinners to business meetings to dropping in for a quick coffee.
The venue’s design has been worked on by the in-house creative team, Lionel Real de Azua of Red Deer Architects and Louise Davies of Box 9 Architects, and takes its inspiration from the idea of a worn stately home. The interiors have a more minimalist feel with a ‘light, clean’ design.
The space features details such as whitewashed floorboards, classic cornicing and light walls with muslin, which are contrasted with ironwork, wood and antique armchairs and sofas with thick patterned fabrics like Kilim and Hessian.
Bourne & Hollingsworth Buildings has been designed as five unique spaces. One of these is the Bottle Room, which is a private dining room for 14 people that is lined with antique display cabinets full of spirits. Another is the cocktail bar, which has large windows and doors that open onto the street and park outside. The bar is influenced by a ‘Grand Café’ feel and has bespoke concrete panelling and a white marble mosaic bar top.
Other rooms in the venue take on the abandoned stately home feel, with the café, restaurant and greenhouse featuring soft furnishings and armchairs alongside cane garden furniture and iron benches. The group aim to bring some of the garden feel inside, and the indoor spaces will host hanging baskets, trees and creepers.
Bourne & Hollingworth Buildings is located at 42 Northampton Road and opens in mid-September.