Photography by David Brooks Hall. right the way along all the walls in this area, lit from behind with colour-changing LED lighting. Along the back of some of the chairs is also a very effective gold leaf detail – like an ornate mirror frame. The walls have a horizontal stripe pattern, caused by the use of different coloured wood - like layers of soil if you cut the earth in half. The bar is also interesting, fusing a mixture of materials and textures from padded bar front, brown marble top and tiny mirrored glitter ball tiles forming a strip along the top of the bar front, and studded along the base of the gantry. Above it are several Plasma screens advertising different nights in between music videos. The dance floor itself is quite spacious and the feature wall is clad in a mixture of oblong white and mirrored tiles, on which are projected a rainbow blotch of colours. There’s a lot going to engage the senses, with state-of-the-art lighting and Mr Orr hasn’t stinted on materials either, so fixtures and fittings ooze a kind of decadence.
The second floor is an equally long space, but half the size of the floor below, narrowing at the far end to a fire exit. The bar is in the same place, to the left, and nestling at the end of it is a DJ booth padded in mottled leather, again in mushroom tones. Opposite the bar is an equally as long section of banquette seating, with tables and stools. Beyond both the bar and the seats is a smaller dance floor, which has shelves for drinks. But the design triumph of this floor has to be the wall-mounted mirrored oblong pieces, encased in a think wooden frame. They stand proud from the wall, and a burnt orange light illuminates the surround. I haven’t seen anything quite like this before. Once the ground floor is open customers will be able to move freely between all three storeys, with ground floor mainly in use as an overspill. The design, Robert tells me, will be sympathetic to the rest of Silk. It’s obvious that Robert Orr knows his onions as Silk combines high end sophistication with a cool edge, that should ensure that particular address remains on the Capital’s clubbing map for generations to come. DRAM SEPTEMBER 11
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