1885 is a collaboration proper. Cheshire worked daily with the energetic client-operator to shape four distinct bars within a single venue.
Shared enthusiasms – for the working history of the building, the potential of roughness, the exhilaration of luxury amidst decay – meant a near interchangeability of roles. Design ideas, details, management and execution were processes shared from inception to opening.
This intensity of relationship and project focus empowered us to permeate all levels of the project, and gave us the freedom to creatively resolve the challenge of inserting a high-capacity, highly-serviced hospitality environment into an immutable old building whose designers anticipated only grain storage and clerks’ offices.
It allowed us to develop organically the nature of each bar’s experience, continually refining it during its execution. 1885 delivers the city a variety of experience – from improvised and intimate den through big nightclub and cozy jazz bar to luxury subterranean lounge – in a form that thrives off age, patina, and the tension between robustness and fineness.
2011 Best Awards : Gold
2011 Lewisham Awards : Outstanding Bar
Photographer thinkphotography.co.nz