Bonhams' new London HQ by Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands
![London headquarters](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/M5QrD88tKo2czs29iUdb4R-415-80.jpg)
'An auction house essentially needs to fulfil two functions,' says Alex Lifschutz, 'It's got to be a warehouse. And it's got to be a theatre.' The architect should know, given his practice Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands is responsible for the freshly unveiled £30 million revamp of Bonhams' London headquarters.
It's a little more complex than that, of course. The site at 101 New Bond Street could not have been so dramatically transformed from a 'rabbit warren' with extremely tight Mayfair planning constraints, into a vast, light and high-tech modern facility without some serious innovation. While the facade of the Grade II listed Art Deco building remains as familiar as ever, immediately on entering, the interior will be barely recognisable to anyone who used to know it.
The space, which comprises a stunning 18.5m high atrium, three large and fully flexible auction rooms - two of which are double height and all precisely air and temperature controlled - is designed specifically with clients and customer service in mind, says Bonhams chairman Robert Brooks. It also represents a major commitment by the company to London as a global centre of art. With Bonhams having experienced a highly successful decade - it is one of the fastest growing international auction houses in the world - it now plans to extend a similar treatment to its New York and Hong Kong outposts too.
'An auction house today has a very different set of requirements to those of the past,' says Lifschutz. As well as the required sense of theatre and the benefits of clever lighting schemes and smart acoustics, lot sizes have also grown significantly larger. Contemporary art, he explains, tends to be created to fill gallery spaces and is often huge in scale, requiring similarly enormous display rooms and extensive storage capability. Today, Bonhams finds itself putting many vintage supercars under the hammer too, hence the need for a dedicated hydraulically operated platform on which to showcase them.
The inaugural exhibition is a showcase of highlights from Bonhams' winter sales, including the multi-million pound 'Portrait of François-Henri, 5th duc d'Harcourt', by French painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard.
While the facade of the Grade II listed Art Deco building remains as familiar as ever, the greatly overhauled interiors will be barely recognisable to anyone who used to know it
The space comprises a stunning 18.5m high atrium, three large and fully flexible auction rooms, all designed specifically with clients and customer service in mind
Two of the auction rooms are double height and all are air and temperature controlled
The new HQ also represents a major commitment by the company to London as a global centre of art
The opening exhibition is a showcase of highlights from Bonhams' winter sales, including the multi-million pound 'Portrait of François-Henri, 5th duc d'Harcourt' (far left), by French painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard
ADDRESS
Bonhams
101 New Bond Street
London W1S 1SR
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
-
Feel at home at Auberge, Château La Coste's new inn for culture lovers
Auberge La Coste sits at the heart of the art-filled estate, minutes away from the joyful town of Aix-en-Provence
By Harriet Thorpe Published
-
This Nova Lima apartment is a Brazilian family oasis with striking Minas Gerais views
A Nova Lima apartment designed by Jacobsen Arquitetura celebrates its long, natural Minas Gerais vistas
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Commune’s sustainable personal care products look ‘quite unlike anything else’
Commune’s Somerset-made products stand out in the sustainable skincare crowd. Madeleine Rothery speaks with the brand’s co-founders Kate Neal and Rémi Paringaux
By Madeleine Rothery Published
-
‘Mental health, motherhood and class’: Hannah Perry’s dynamic installation at Baltic
Hannah Perry's exhibition ’Manual Labour’ is on show at Baltic in Gateshead, UK, a five-part installation drawing parallels between motherhood and factory work
By Emily Steer Published
-
Francis Alÿs plots child play around the world at the Barbican
In Francis Alÿs' exhibition ‘Ricochets’ at London’s Barbican, the artist explores the universality of play, even in challenging situations
By Amah-Rose Abrams Published
-
At Glastonbury’s Shangri-La, activism and innovation meet
Glastonbury’s south-east corner is known for its after-dark entertainment but by day, there is a different story to tell
By Rhian Daly Published
-
‘I am almost an anti-sculptor’: Dominique White on her Whitechapel Max Mara Art Prize show
The artist mines the ocean to explore Afrofuturism in ‘Deadweight’, opening at London’s Whitechapel and detailed in a new film
By Amah-Rose Abrams Published
-
Remembering Rusty Egan's Blitz Club: a place to 'avoid the mob and the homophobes', where the New Romantics were born
As he releases new vinyl boxset, 'Blitzed!', Wallpaper* meets DJ Rusty Egan to talk about London's scene-building Blitz club – the antidote to the late 70s punk scene and a hot-bed of experimental fashion
By Craig McLean Published
-
Suzannah Pettigrew's 'tender and ghostly' new show at Surrealist photographer Lee Miller's former home in East Sussex
London-based artist Suzannah Pettigrew's photographic stills create a snapshot of her Sussex coast childhood, conjuring up a hallucinatory world of memory
By Mary Cleary Published
-
The body, pleasure and play: Beryl Cook and Tom of Finland united in London
Tom of Finland’s homoeroticism meets Beryl Cook’s female-oriented camp as Studio Voltaire unites work by the two artists in a London exhibition
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Zanele Muholi celebrates South Africa’s Black LGBTI communities in LA and London
Zanele Muholi's portraits and sculptures are currently on show at Southern Guild Los Angeles and the Tate Modern, London
By Hannah Silver Published