David Collins (Image credit: Faubel & Christensen)
Designer dining: celebrating 30 years of David Collins Studio
CODE’s Adam Hyman looks back over the history of David Collins Studio and the late designer’s lasting legacy on the London restaurant industry. La Tante Claire, 68 Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea SW3 4HP. This was the first restaurant that David Collins ever designed. The site - which is now home to the three Michelin-starred Restaurant Gordon Ramsay - was opened by Pierre Koffmann and his first wife Annie in 1977. The French chef had spotted a house in Harpers and Queens that had been designed by Collins and so contacted him to ask him to design La Tante Claire. The rest, as they say, is history.
La Tante Claire (Image credit: David Collins Studio)
Piccadilly to show their respect. Two years on following Collins’s death, the design studio is celebrating its 30th anniversary. “David very much wanted the business to continue”, says Iain Watson, managing director of David Collins Studio (DCS). “Due to the size and nature of the business, there was a succession plan in place. We were just not expecting to have to implement it when we did.” Watson was left in control of the business, along with the studio’s creative director, Simon Rawlings, communications director David Kendall and design director, Lewis Taylor. Watson explains that “people would often assume that David was off travelling around the world and ask if we ever saw him. If he was in London, he was in the office. He was very hands on with the business. He loved London. He was incredibly cultured. He had a passion for fashion, art, jewellery and he’d often attend two or three events a night when he was in town.” With the studio in safe hands, their pipeline of business looks just as strong as the ones they have worked on with projects for Harrods and hotels in Melbourne and Qatar to name but a few. “Our future at the studio is about working with the right client. It’s all about quality. We do a lot of work overseas now as well as the UK”, muses Watson. Looking through the list of all the hotels, restaurants and bars that DCS has designed since 1985 reads is nothing short of impressive. Familiar names such as The Connaught, Bob Bob Ricard and Brasserie Zédel dominate the latter part of the timeline but it’s only when you start to look further back at the beginning of his career in London in the late 80’s that you start to realise just how many iconic restaurants the Dublin-born architect and designer had worked on.
Harveys (Image credit: David Collins Studio)
Many working in the world of hospitality and luxury fashion will be familiar with Collins and his work. Whether it’s Claridge’s bar, LimeWood hotel or Alexander McQueen’s stores worldwide. I bumped into Pierre Koffmann at the time of writing this piece at Russell Norman’s launch of his Spuntino book. He recalls working with Collins, who also designed La Tante Claire when it moved to the Berkeley hotel in 1998. “He could be difficult to work with as he always had very set ideas on things but I guess that’s why he was so good at what he did. However, he was not a foodie.” In July 2013, Collins suddenly passed away after a short illness. The news shocked the restaurant world, those who had worked with him and those of us who just enjoyed sitting in the dining rooms he had created. On Thursday 23 January 2014, The Wolseley hosted a tribute for Collins, a decade after he had designed the restaurant with Jeremy King and Chris Corbin. Tom Ford, Vogue’s Hamish Bowles and Mario Testino were just some of the names that came to 169
-6The Wolseley (Image credit: David Loftus)
