Wartski approached Waldo Works for a new showroom to encapsulate both their long, storied history and their embrace of design “of our time”.

The historic shopfront was recreated to stringent security requirements. The illusion of age extends into the store where the walls, floor and ceiling are abruptly sliced by a line of steel. Upon crossing this, visitors leave St James’s for the concrete-clad world of Wartski, the material choice relating to the Brutalist tenets of Sir Denys Lasdun, designer of Wartski’s former premises. Silk-lined vitrines are set into faceted concrete walls, each trimmed with Welsh slate and designed on the golden ratio, to reflect the human proportions of the jewellery within.

The golden rule is also used in plan, with each element designed to this premise. The ceiling comprises a complex lattice of beams set at 45 degrees to the shopfront, encouraging flow and directing movement deeper into the space. It changes in scale and the coffers shallow as it heads deeper into the store where the walls start to grow above the customer, marking an abstracted cavelike faceted transition - the jewellery feels secure and vaulted into the architecture.

A full-height showcase signifies the end of the main showroom spaces but through a series of faceted timber panels one reaches a safe room and the velvet-lined private sales area. Here, retractable wall mirrors conceal dramatically lit vitrines containing the most prized objects in the collection.