Monmouth Coffee Company, founded in 1978, was one of the early artisan coffee shops that led the way in London and is still known to be one of the best coffee shops in London. We were thrilled to collaborate with Interior design group, Sheppard Robson ID:SR, transforming seven railway arches in South London, into new offices, roastery and production spaces.
Monmouth needed to move from their small arches in Bermondsey to new premises. To maintain the feel for how they work, Monmouth Coffee chose to move to larger arches, which presented a real challenge in terms of daylight and overall quality of lighting for staff who work there.
The interior design emphasizes the industrial setting by the use of simple materials and geometric shapes, which are separated from the old structures through lighting and visual contrasts. ID:SR designed an innovative frame system to give the workspace structure and carry services. We used this as a carrier for indirect lighting as an ambient level, giving the office spaces a bright and airy feel. The amount of indirect and direct light can be tuned depending on whether the spaces are used for events or work. Where luminaires are visible they have been chosen based on their industrial and utilitarian character to harmonize with the rough railway arches and to only provide light where light is needed. By designing the interiors and lighting as a modular and freestanding grid – the design principles can easily be applied to another railway arch should the company require more space in the future.
