There is no shortage of pints of places in London. There’s only one, however, when you can drink it at the mahogany bar under artist Phyllida Barlow’s kaleidoscopic mosaic ceiling: The Audley Public House.
The Mayfair Bar also showcases creations by Martin Creed, Rodney Gram and Don McCullin – as well as plain roast beef sandwiches with gravy dipping sauce – just The first unique space in a larger concept called The Audley. While multiple hyphens are often used to describe people, it also applies to this broad range No. 1 features a restaurant and four private event rooms on its five floors: it’s a bar-restaurant-gallery-event space where both culinary and artistic pursuits take center stage.
The couple are Ivan and Manuela Wirth, renowned gallerists and founders of Hauser and Wirth. Audley is the latest portfolio of its hotel group ArtFarm, which also includes Fife Arms in Braemer and Durslade Farmhouse in Somerset. their temperament? Show art not only in public, but in
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So when the current Audley Hotel was vacant, they asked for a Paris-based design and Architecture studio Laplace restores and reinvigorates the site. Inspired by the Kronen Hall in Zurich, they have created a modern oasis that perfectly combines art and gastronomy. “Showing art in a restaurant is democracy at its best – our bar is so open that everyone can use it,” said Ewan Venters, chief executive of ArtFarm. “You can go in and have a sausage roll or a vegetarian pie, look at the wall masterpiece.”
Or, indeed, on the floor. At the Mount Street restaurant, directly above the Audley Public House, American artist Rashid Johnson’s Palladiana mosaic floor in various marbles stands out. Guests can sit on a piece called Broken Floor, while enjoying upscale British fare like lobster pie and smoked eel salad Dishes are served by uniformed waitresses by Savile Row seamstress Kathryn Sargent. (hanging on the wall? Food-themed art, including Andy Warhol’s Lobster and Lucien Floyd De’sA plate of shrimp.
A feature of Rashid Johnson
s Broken building (98) in Audley.
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