CASE STUDY

Savoy Richmond

CASE STUDY

Savoy Richmond

Carl Beckwith

Interior design by Carl Beckwith - Audio Visual Consultant.

My background as former member of the UK's Cinema Theatre Association and the Thirties' Society, now Twentieth Century Society, meant that I had no shortage of inspirational cues from which to draw upon regarding what could be achieved within even the most stock scale of room proportions.

I was brought in by my clients of longstanding with a new commission for what was to be my second cinema screening room design a decade or so on from my first design. As before, this was to be within their new home's basement area located in Richmond, London.

Period correct design, combined with the appropriately designated lighting schemes, in-period furnishings and a mindset inclined toward subtlety and understated elegance with carefully curated colour schemes, collectively brought about a room that possesses all the evocation of the golden age of moderne 1930's Art Deco cinema.

Levels of authenticity

To this day, there still exists listed-status cinema buildings of this pre-war period that have been fully restored in various parts of the UK, but so far, very little of these Art Deco interior designs are in evidence within the creative home cinema movement with such levels of authenticity.

To this end, that of authenticity, the design team of Fleming Howland are to be acknowledged as being the only bespoke furniture operation that has fully aligned to the 1930's Art Deco brief with an intelligently curated design that would have one believe that they had purchased a restored original armchair hailed from a Parisian high-end dealer specialising in boutique antique furnishings.

Finessed aesthetic

Cloud Chairs in Moss mohair by Fleming Howland

Many operations have attempted in re-creating such designs that are, at best, little more than an assimilation, but none have succeeded with the same degree of finessed aesthetic, as found from the days when such furniture was made to this high standard from numerous companies up and down the country that have long ceased trading.

Finessed aesthetic

Quality design and manufacturing will always remain the hallmark of any business that runs counter to an acountant's brief by ultimately delivering on long-term strategems by building such qualities and longevity into their designs for a client base that desires nothing less.

In this regard, by choosing Fleming Howland, my clients and I can only express our full appreciation; notwithstanding that such a business exists in an age filled with 'off-the-peg' mass production product of less inspiring dimensions.

This story features the Cloud chair design in Moss Mohair fabric.