Park Row

Client: Wonderland Restaurants

Location: 77 Brewer St, London W1F 9ZN

Year: July 2021

Brief: To design the world’s first fully immersive, DC-inspired, restaurant experience.

The residential grandeur of Park Row provides a suitably secret identity for the world’s first fully immersive DC-inspired restaurant experience.

Ensconced within the heart of Soho, the initial entrance to the restaurant appears like that of an elegant gentleman’s club. But a hidden door concealed behind bookshelves, soon lets the visitor know they are leaving the everyday world behind. The journey down into the darkness of the batcave, lit only by the pulsing rhythm of a central light feature, builds anticipation further, until stepping through a misty doorway into a grand restaurant.

Elegantly framed by grand 1920s art deco elevations in soft rosewood and light maple, the original ceiling of the listed building became an anchor point for our design scheme. The underpinning narrative was threaded with subtle, knowing references to the DC world, creating a rich landscape that wraps around the visitor, making them part of the story.

The Iceberg bar is the heart of Park Row; perfectly centred, its intricate flooring radiates out across the space, visually connecting it to the three bars that form the other main landmarks of the experience; Rogues Gallery, Pennyworths and Old Gotham each one offering a portal into a different facet of the inimitable DC world. This flooring geometry further extends to a stage which houses a private seating area or live music performances, enclosed by a golden curtain.

The best concealed yet most impactful intervention in the space is the elegantly curved, 3-metre-tall mirror boxes that secretly house the restaurant’s one-of-a-kind gastronomic show, Monarch Theatre, which holds floor to-ceiling-screens and 360-degree projection mapping.

The complementary palette of materials and finishes across all spaces, interwoven throughout with touches of luxury and surprise, combined with a raft of hidden details for those in the know, create an authentic mood and immersive atmosphere that carry you from space to space without breaking the spell.