80 Charlotte St

Derwent London are a long-standing Bill Amberg client, and one of the UK’s most forward-thinking property developers. Occupying an entire city block, their expansive 371,000 ft2 mixed-use development at 80 Charlotte Street in Fitzrovia represents a revival for the area.

Working alongside architects MAKE, we were asked to propose a concept and manufacture bespoke furniture for the project. The striking centrepiece of the building’s reception area is a large-scale curved banquette. Measuring over three metres high by eight metres long, the piece is unusual for its size, in that it uses vegetable-tanned shoulders, instead of traditional upholstery hides.

Constructed at the studio from leather panels of approximately 1.4 m2, a subtle tufting detail achieved by pulling through the natural fawn thread, creates horizontal channels; drawing the eye along the length of the piece and over its curves at each end. The leather in a light tan is replete with growth marks and natural characteristics, and will develop a rich patina over time.

Additional custom furniture included a twin-stitched reception bench for the residential-led Asta House development next door, alongside outdoor cabana seating for the shared roof terraces. We clad a series of lift handrails for the main building using the same vegetable-tanned shoulder leather with a box stitch detail, and made loose seat cushions for the reception, which had a pinched, stitched and polished edge detail, in the same thread as the banquette.