In time for its 300th anniversary celebrations in November, Fortnum and Mason’s new, two-tiered food-hall is complete. It has taken 2 years for retail design company Kinnersley Kent Design to sensitively overhaul the department store’s heritage-heavy jewel-in-its-crown. Best known for its extensive ranges of gift-foods – jams, preserves, chocolates and teas – the Fortnum and Mason food hall has extended from the store’s ground floor, via a sweeping spiralling staircase in a new central atrium, to the lower ground floor, which now houses one of the most ambitiously foodie ‘markets’ in the world.
On the ground floor the traditional produce has been displayed on new furnishings – designed with no expense spared, and in keeping with the Georgian origins of the store. ‘Gondolas’ holding the produce, dot the floor – made of stained cherry wood and brass edging, they came at a cost of £14,000 each. A ‘Biblioteque’ of preserves occupies one wall and a honey table, featuring among its collection, nectars from roof-top hives, a chocolate shop, patisserie, tea shop, coffee shop and baker - complete with ovens and a view through to the dough-mixing area.
Some features were preserved and revamped – the famous art collection naturally was kept, and pieces are used to create a small gallery behind the tills, the chandeliers, the tea tins, the bread mixing machine, the coffee silos. Others were auctioned off at Bonhams. The new-look floor will be exported to the store’s outposts - opening at a rate of knots - in Japan and the US.
While the crimson carpets and the extravagant chandeliers will keep the more mature Fortnum’s food shopper feeling at home, the lower ground floor is the area that will set the pulses of new-wave foodie connoisseurs racing. A lighter, airier atmosphere combines just enough of the homely rustic pantry feel, with the professional feel afforded by the sort of tiled, marble and granite counters and cabinets that have inhabited trusted grocers for centuries.
A modern take on the Georgian ‘curiosity cabinet’ houses the most precious and pricey produce such as British truffles and caviar, carefully controlling temperature and humidity. A wine crypt adjoins the wine area, and dry-curing cabinets, maturing best quality Scottish beef, form the backdrop to the meat counter.
Fortnum’s boasts many firsts – from inventing the scotch egg, the concept of the hamper and ready meals, to importing the first Heinz Baked Beans and Kellogs Cornflakes. While a curiosity for the best produce internationally remains, there is unsurprisingly, given the mood of the times, a strong emphasis on seasonality, authenticity and the best of British. We will be hotfooting it back very soon, at the least to pick up a warm beef and mustard sandwich from the highly commendable take-out counter.
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- Telephone
- 44.20 7734 80
- Address
- Fortnum and Mason
181 Piccadilly
London
