Starbucks Celebrating Heritage

Creating a flagship in the heart of Mayfair, London

As part of the store design transformation I was leading at Starbucks,  there was a fantastic opportunity to refurbish an existing store that nested between world-renowned Savile Row and historical Regent Street in the heart of London’s luxury brand district. However, this store was now unusually tired looking, lacked any individuality and as a result, failed to celebrate the majesty of Mayfair. From the moment I saw this store, I wanted to make it the flagship for the new portfolio of locally relevant Starbucks and also to pay homage to the history of Saville Row and its heritage of artisan craftsmanship.

Before photos (below)

The existing store lacked originality and visual appeal. It was the typical Starbucks store fit from the early 2000's, but it was squashed into a stunningly beautiful townhouse (now known as a Maison by the fashion pack), without any care or regard for the original building features.

To begin any project where local relevance was the steer, we would research the history of the site and the neighbourhood to best understand the heritage of the building, so that we could be as faithful to the original architecture as possible. In this site, we had to find archive drawings and photographs to understand the area as it was when the building was first constructed. It was imperative that we were as accurate to the original specifications and details as possible to honour this world-famous location. We employed specialist craftsmen who were accustomed to working with listed property to produce the new features and fittings from the drawings that our design team created. The ambition was to celebrate and honour the building's heritage but in a contemporary and relevant way. This takes more time, and more money than a regular fit-out, but the honesty and integrity of the result is always unbelievably impressive.

After the surveys were done, we resited the kitchen and back-of-house offices into the basement and opened up the ground and first floors, revealing a wealth of original features that would now be listed and restored. These included a hand carved mahogany ceiling that began life in Istanbul 150 years previously, large marble Corinthian pillars on the ground floor that had been blocked out with plasterboard walls in the 1970s, and an original oak staircase joining all levels.

New oak panelling was designed based on archive drawings of Savile Row houses, a detailed ironwork design was based on the store exterior balustrade, and all technology and retail equipment were integrated into traditionally empathetic oak furniture. Irish tweed and British leather upholstery and furniture gave a respectful nod to the grand history of Savile Row gentlemen's tailoring.

In our homage to this district, we designed new elements and features that had a quirk or twist to them, this was to bring to life the culture of British eccentricity that is present in many British fashion designers work, e.g. Vivienne Westwood and Ozwald Boateng.

All touch-points and design details were thoughtfully considered, from an antique chandelier that was from the Maria Theresa period to laser-cut Corian lettering set into routed-out oak table tops that communicated coffee soundbites. A new design pattern was created to celebrate the heritage of Starbucks and of Vigo Street. This would be used throughout the store as wall covering and fabric.

This large community-table is made from a gorgeous espresso coloured Corian and has been laser-etched with the global coffee map. Wherever possible around the store, there are subtle references to Starbucks coffee heritage.

To make this store stand out, I wanted to create a unique design language for Vigo Street that combined the design cues of the building with those of the Starbucks brand. This would include details taken from architectural features like the mahogany ceiling, the exterior iron balustrade, the marble columns etc. for Vigo Street, and for Starbucks, it would include the coffee bean and tree, coffee cups, muffins, the mermaid icon etc.
We used the Starbucks Facebook page to invite new designers to take up this challenge by visiting the store and then by creating a design concept from what they had learned. This concept would have to be relevant to today’s customer while also enhancing the store environment and celebrating the history of this beautiful building. The slideshow below articulates this design projects from start to finish.

Click the arrows to view the photos.

The design concept was used throughout the store to tell the story of the partnership of the combined heritages, and it also spawned a limited edition product range. The refurbishment received unbelievably good press attention and market acclaim.