With a long-standing commitment to craftsmanship, Derwent London is an established Bill Amberg Studio client and one of the UK’s most forward-thinking property developers. Working collaboratively with architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM), we were commissioned to design and make bespoke seating and interior leatherwork for Soho Place, Derwent’s most complex project to date.

Soho Place, the first new street name in Soho for 72 years, consists of two buildings connected by a new public realm. The north building, 1 Soho Place, is a landmark ten-storey building above Tottenham Court Road station on Europe’s busiest shopping street. The south building, 2/4 Soho Place, is a nine-storey building that contains the first new-build West End theatre to open in 50 years. 

For the lobby at 1 Soho Place, we created bespoke leather seating, set amongst cantilevered European travertine stone, using a soft, aniline-dyed upholstery leather. The seating has a pulled-through stitch detail, instead of traditional buttons, to create a fluting feature that adds to the linear effect of the reception space.

In the centre of each bench is a fold-down armrest, offering a comfortable place to rest your arm. The same tan leather was used for reception desk blotters. A soft nap, aniline-dyed leather in light tan was used to create a continuous tennis-wrapped handrail for the sculptural spiral staircase leading to a mezzanine floor.

For No. 2/4 Soho Place, we created tennis-wrapped handrails in a soft nap, aniline-dyed leather for the entrance foyer and inside the triple-sized lift. A leather seating bench, with a pulled-through stitch detail to match the lobby benches, was also completed for the large lift.