Filling station

Architectural Review, The, July, 1997 by Penny McGuire

Over the past 30 years or so, Terence Conran's contribution to British culture has been immense. It is easy to snipe at his missionary zeal as he skips from one scheme to another - from the early Habitat and Conran shops to a string of food shops and restaurants: Conran, Pont de la Tour, Michelin, Mezzo and Quaglino's - others coming up this year include the Coq d'Argent in Stirling and Wilford's building in Poultry, in the City of London. He occasionally misses his footing, but no-one can doubt that his determination to elevate aesthetic and culinary standards in Britain is heartfelt.

The Bluebird Gastrodome, designed by Conran's practice, CD Partnership, opened in May; and already is said to be invigorating the tail end of the King's Road. This is another of Conran's immensely civilised emporia with cafe, restaurant, and shop, but also the addition of an open-air fruit, vegetable and flower market and a large grocery. It has been created out of a much-loved London landmark, the old Bluebird Garage which the practice has restored and converted, as it did earlier with the Michelin building in South Kensington - curiously another '20s building celebrating the joys of motoring and the car.

Bluebird was once the largest motor garage in Europe. It had car servicing areas, chauffeur's lounge, accommodation for travellers and a petrol forecourt. Erected in 1923, and designed by Robert Sharp, it has a steel structure with trusses supporting the roof from which is suspended the first floor slab. The arrangement left the ground floor a clear space to manoeuvre cars.

It was the building's jolly blue and white manner of confronting the Street that inspired Londoners' affections and the Grade 2 listing in 1988. Sharp's facade, flanked by two undistinguished neo-Georgian wings in brick, was pilastered Art-Deco style with some Classical detailing around the openings. The forecourt furnished with lollipop petrol pumps was fenced off from the street by a faience wall with a flourish of railings and lamps on posts. Cast bluebirds marked the entrance.

CD's restoration and conversion has been careful of the building and of its original spirit. Having restored its distinguishing features and payee the forecourt, the architects replaced the petrol pumps with a market stall sheltered, like Piers Gough's famous lavatory and flower stall in west London (AR August 1993), by a glass and steel canopy. The renovated wings contain a chromed out cafe giving onto the great food hall on one side, and a flower stall and chef's shop on the other.

Inside the main building, a simply designed lift and stairs take you to the airy skylit restaurant on the first floor. Entrance to the luminous nave-like space is marked by a stainless steel and granite bar; and standing here, your eye travels down the central axis (as at Quaglino's) to a seafood altar at the far end. The space has been sparely furnished with petrol blue banquettes, leather and chrome chairs and simple tables. Overhead, Richard Smith's kite-like works float gently among exposed steel trusses.

A similar simplicity governs design of the tiled food hall. The deliberate ruggedness of exposed ductwork and tough surfaces, and arrangement of specially designed fittings - the ply shelving, counters, refrigerator housings - are reminiscent of Julyan Wickham's food hall at Harvey Nichols (AR July 1993), but the effect is more economical, less over-wrought. The ambiance and gastronomic delicacies, the nicely designed bottles, jars and tins, remind you of Conran's passion for the gastronomic traditions of France and Italy.

Bluebird reveals a return to the spirit of earlier ventures, notably at Butlers Wharf and Michelin, before, that is, the appearance of Quaglino's and Mezzo's interiors which seemed uncomfortable departures into self-conscious razzmatazz. This scheme is a return to the plain, uncluttered and largely undecorated celebration of the intrinsic qualities of structure and space, and the inherent quality of carefully chosen ingredients.

Architect CD Partnership: Terence Conran, Ewan Anderson, Matthew Wood, Paul Zara, Isobel Lowe

Photographs Richard Bryant/RCAID