Last night was the launch of a brand new space in the heart of London – St James’s Market lies between Regent’s Street and Haymarket and is a new development by The Crown Estate, working with Make Architects, Oxford Properties and FutureCity to create a new space in London for retail, dining, office space and a welcoming public space outdoors.

We worked closely with FutureCity and the artist David Thorpe to create 5 separate panels – 3 exterior and 2 interior – inspired by the area’s history of master craftsmanship and private gentleman’s clubs.

On the exterior of the building we installed three large panels of ceramic tiles. Each tile was handmade by a ceramicist, and we then made a structure to hang them from and installed them on site. They feature a bold pattern in black and off-white and were inspired by the handmade book covers of the past.

Inside No.1 St James’s Market are two more panels covered in an intricate pattern of cut leather in Autumnal colours, inspired by the end papers of books. Each piece of leather was applied by hand in our studio in West London.

There are 1038 tiles on the exterior panels, and over 36,000 pieces of leather on the internal panels.

(Image at top of page is a detail of the leather panels)

Tiled panel at St James’s Market