Hasta La Ideas

Interior architect Martin Brudnizki Design Studio has created a classical Greek and Roman mythology-informed restaurant complete with sculptures by British artist Damien Hirst in Mayfair, London.

Named Bacchanalia London, the restaurant is located on a corner site of 1 Mount Street in Mayfair that was previously a Porsche showroom.

Opened 1 December, the restaurant has an opulent interior designed by Martin Brudnizki Design Studio that makes use of mosaics, classical details, hand-painted ceiling murals and Greek and Roman artworks more than 2,000 years old.

The main dining room features five monumental statues designed by British artist Hirst that depict a winged lion, a unicorn ridden by a pair of winged lovers, another unicorn, Medusa and Bacchus.

 

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Dezeen filmed an exclusive first-look video tour of the restaurant.

The walls of the main space were covered in floor-to-ceiling murals painted by artist Gary Myatt that interpret French artist Thomas Couture’s 1847 painting Romans in their Decadence.

However, in Myatt’s murals the classically dressed figures can be seen using laptops and holding iPhones.

Throughout the restaurant period and modern Greek and Roman art was showcased. Many pieces are over 2,000 years old. Over 300 books of 24-carat gold leaf were used across the interiors of the project.

Over 400,000 tiles were used in the ladies restroom to conjure orchard greenery inspired by the Garden of Hesperides, where according to Greek mythology golden apples grow.

The men’s restrooms – with high-gloss black toilets – are supposed to represent Hades’ underworld.

Informed by the Roman festival of Bacchus’ drunken celebrations, Bacchanalia London is the latest restaurant from restauranteur Richard Caring.

At the launch event in November, Caring heralded it as a place for “the drinking of wine in excess and the co-mingling of the sexes thereafter”, adding that “Bacchanalia London could help with the former but guests would have to work out the latter for themselves”.

Martin Brudnizki Design Studio previously renovated Caring’s other London club, Annabel’s, in 2018. Hélène Darroze at The Connaught is another Mayfair restaurant that has been recently revamped. To mark its 10-year anniversary in 2019, French designer Pierre Yovanovitch overhauled the dining space in the luxury hotel.

The photography is by Johnny Stephens Photography.

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