London Members' Clubs - Design Focus : Series 1 'The Ned'

Tapestry Room - Image thanks to The Ned

In our WOOLF Interior Design & Interior Architecture Journal series celebrating the best Hospitality Architecture and Interiors in the UK, we take our favourite Members Clubs’ in London and reveal their unique and distinct design ingredients. The Ned is an epic ‘members club with rooms’, it is one of the 18 members' clubs conceived and owned by the Soho House Group & Co. The Grade I Listed building was designed in 1924 by celebrated British Architect Sir Edwin 'Ned' Lutyens and completed in 1939. “It was the most beautiful building I'd ever seen” says Nick Jones of Soho House.

The 250 bedrooms range in size from intimate to large-scale suites – all with a nod to 1920s glamour. Each of the six individually designed restaurants have their own distinct space within the Banking Hall. They are separated by 92 verdite columns and rows of Grade I listed walnut Banking Counters: ‘Millie’s Lounge’ - a British Restaurant & Bar, The American styled ‘Nickel Bar’ - a fast and loose ‘Electric Bar & Diner’, the effortlessly chic ‘Californian Malibu Kitchen’, Kaia - an Asian Pacific restaurant, and of course the more formal ‘Luyten’s Grill’.

‘Ned’s Club Upstairs’ has a heated pool and two converted domes with terraces. The Roof Bar features a retractable roof and heaters so you can make the most of the view all year round. There are views of the City and St Paul’s Cathedral. ‘Ned’s Club Downstairs’ includes The Vault Bar, the Long Bar, The Parlour offering a lounge space, the Kennels, the Snug and the Sitting Room. Explore WOOLF’s Hospitality projects.

Millie’s - Image thanks to The Ned

The Ned’s Architectural Design & Interiors

While the building’s listed status brings with it a fitting sense of prestige, it must have inevitably presented a degree of difficulty for The Ned Design Team in terms of ensuring the property was fit for purpose as a hotel. It is clear that he approach to the design is in keeping with the original feel of the architectural context, as the historic property has been reinvented and transformed in a way that still feels true to itself. We understand that "the brief was to create a beautiful old hotel as if it had been around since the inception of the building itself".

We note that the in-house Design Team took lots of existing motifs from the building and re-worked them to create a cohesion between the old and new. One example is the fishtail pattern found on one of the original grills on the ground floor. The fishtail pattern can be seen throughout the building in new additions, such as the custom-made pink leather cladding on the bar in Cecconi’s and the antique brass grill on the check-in desk. Looking at the former Midland Bank, with its vaulted ceilings, verdite columns and old wood-panelled tellers' offices, we note that many of the Grade I Listed building's original features remain perfectly intact. Explore WOOLF’s Historic projects.

Tapestry Room - Image thanks to The Ned

Here at WOOLF Interior Design & Interior Architecture we have picked out some of our favourite and most striking heritage features at The Ned and investigated some of the stories behind those features :

The Windows: All around the building, from the ground floor to the roof we see double height, wrought iron windows casting light throughout the building. If we take a closer look at those in the Grand Banking Hall, fifth floor bedroom hallways and the sixth floor we can see that The Ned logo itself draws inspiration from their domed design.

The Golden Monogram: on the coved ceiling of The Saloon is one of six dramatic event spaces on the historic sixth floor. The monograms that punctuate the ceiling each read MB, for Midland Bank, were designed by Lutyens himself. He used it again elsewhere, in carved wood form on the backs of two bespoke armchairs he created for the boardroom, complete with ornate claw feet. Explore WOOLF’s Historic projects.

The Top Hat and Cane Boxes: Standing guard at the doorway to what was originally the director's boardroom, now known as The Tapestry Room, these large ornate walnut cupboards were designed by Lutyens and created so the Directors could store their top hats and canes during meals and meetings in specially designed individual compartments.

The Vault - Image thanks to The Ned

The Tapestry: Through the Grand Doors on the sixth floor. The Grand Tapestry that wraps the upper walls of the largest events space was made around 1929 at Lee's Tapestry Works in Birkenhead. The scheme focuses on the Coat of Arms of the principal British Cities and Towns in which the Midland Bank was represented – 16 of them in total – and features 120 different Coats of Arms. It took over 18 months to produce and was one of the largest examples of Tapestry ever produced in England when it was finally hung in 1932.

There are 92 African verdite-covered columns that span the main Banking Hall of The Ned. Each pillar is encased in hundreds of carefully assembled fragments, which are joined together like a jigsaw puzzle; dark green rock would have been hard to come by in such huge quantities at the time.

The statue of a ‘Boy with a Goose’ is perched on the rebated corner of The Ned's exterior, overlooking Poultry and Bank Station. This quirky little statue was designed by Sir William Reid Dick for Lutyens as a finishing touch – a whimsical nod to the fact that the building sat on a street named Poultry. It is possible however, that the architect was actually inspired by the famous Hellenistic sculpture of a boy playing with a goose, by Boethus, in the Vatican.

A carefully hidden chairman’s  lift, on the right hand side of the entrance's vestibule, was designed to spirit him to his office and up to what is now the sixth floor for board meetings and lunches in a private dining room. Now fully reinstated, it's an iconic part of the building and a fascinating sign of the corporate 'us and them' culture that existed within the banking industry during the period.

The Vault : Once the formidable entrance to a multi-room bank vault, is now a cosy club space for Ned's Club Members. The Ned's vault door is a 25-tonne door made by the Chatwood Safe Company – one of only two ever made – and was used as inspiration for the vault in the 1964 James Bond film, Goldfinger. Explore WOOLF’s Hospitality projects.