Oxford Factory Restaurant, Oxford Business Park

We were involved right from the inception which benefited the project immensely. Assisting with the planning permission, change of use for a 100 cover restaurant, relocating the current occupiers to their new office space and ensuring minimum disruption in the construction work when an entrance with cantilevered canopy was created along with new hard and soft landscaping and outdoor seating.

The creation of the restaurant facility meant the focus was not just on design and functionality but precise coordination, efficiency and accessibility. The fully functional commercial kitchen was designed to be in the centre of the space, the diners to surround the ‘cauldron’ so the kitchen wasn’t back of house. All to be on-show to view the skills of the chefs.

Aiming to reflect times of past, and aware that the exact site of the restaurant is where William Morris turned an old military college in to the Morris Motors factory, this became the muse for the restaurant’s interior. The design concept was vintage car factory meets modern industrial, re-imagined in a contemporary way. The ceiling’s exposed services were revamped with new pipework cladding and to reflect the site’s history, new bespoke metal ceiling rafters installed to reflect the design of the rafters from the original Morris Motors factory.

Ensuring we fulfilled the brief throughout we changed all of the signs of the original corporate office interior. Fire doors were replaced, new bespoke ironmongery installed, and the existing bathrooms were refurbished to be in keeping with the overall theme.

Externally, we re-landscaped the building’s surrounding area which included paved courtyard frontage with outdoor seating, new lawned areas and planted beds, lighting, signage and car park amendments with electrical charge points.