Bonhams' new London HQ by Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands

Architecture firm Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands is behind the freshly unveiled £30 million revamp of Bonhams' London headquarters

(Image credit: press)

'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.

The greatly overhauled interiors — 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

Flexible auction rooms — 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

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Henrietta Thompson is a London-based writer, curator, and consultant specialising in design, art and interiors. A longstanding contributor and editor at Wallpaper*, she has spent over 20 years exploring the transformative power of creativity and design on the way we live. She is the author of several books including The Art of Timeless Spaces, and has worked with some of the world’s leading luxury brands, as well as curating major cultural initiatives and design showcases around the world.