img(height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=2939831959404383&ev=PageView&noscript=1")

Brewed awakening

Reviving London’s coffee house culture

Credit: Jill tate

The joke in 1986 when Lloyds of London was completed was that it started off in a coffee house and ended up in a percolator – a reminder that long before Costa and Starbucks, the capital was no stranger to coffee. Architecture firm TILT acknowledges this in its latest project, the Proud Archivist, designed to elegantly revive London’s coffee house culture by creating a simple, cool place in uber-cool Hackney. The 500m2 space is decked out with a long bar and double height ‘library wall’ of white-stained spruce ply, while the gallery area, which uses Forbo linoleum, has a ‘light wall’. Above, the 100-seat restaurant has impressive views over Regent’s Canal. Using a limited palette, TILT has hung untreated larch ceiling fins at 90˚ to the reclaimed mahogany floor.

Latest

9 July 2025 from 9am to 11.15am

RIBAJ Spec: Offices and Workspace Design webinar

24 June 2025

Designing for Neurodiversity webinar

In all, Emily Marshall may have photographed more than 1,000 homes – but this house in the South West, gradually tended to by a pair of families, stopped her in her tracks

This home in the South West, gradually tended to by a pair of families, stopped Emily Marshall in her tracks

This affordable and easy to install bathroom solution for residential and commercial projects doesn't compromise performance or quality

Affordable, easy to install bathroom solution doesn't compromise performance or quality

With scenography by OMA, the second edition of the event is a fascinating exploration of what temporary architecture could mean in the modern Middle East

With scenography by OMA, the event's second edition gives a boost to Saudi Arabia in the soft power game