Blue Sky Hospitality were the winners of the Restaurant – Europe Award in The International Hotel and Property awards 2022.

On the corner of Belgrove St and Euston Road stood the large branch of a Barclays Bank. The owner of the 19th century building, the client, decided to reclaim this very prominent corner to help boost visibility for the hotel above. The brief was to create a design concept for the space that would optimise the internal volume and reduce impact of constraints, draw inspiration from its location, provide a joyful environment for staff and customers and offer a unique, memorable social space that enhances the neighbourhood of Kings Cross-St Pancras.

Magenta is a bar and restaurant within an indoor pergola of Victorian industrial architecture, dressed in a palette of coal, steel and oak, upholstered with magenta wool and anthracite leather. Its an evocative space where thousands of butterflies flutter overhead in shimmering hues of pink and silver, to a cinematic soundtrack punctuated by atmospheric bird songs. The result might look, taste and feel like what “MAGENTA” is today. A name that alludes to northern Italy and its flavours, but also the chemistry of nature and the organic pigments that sustain plant life, including the anthocyanins that colour our food and wines in vivid shades of red, pink and purple. “MAGENTA” is the colour of imagination. “MAUVE” is the name of the restaurant’s private dining room, accessed via its own staircase and seating 12 people. The intimate space has been designed like a fantastical steampunk dining carriage, and includes its own kitchen gantry and so is also useable for drink reception.

MAGENTA’s design is an unusual balance of artistic and functional sensibility. The soaring space is dressed with industrial influences, softened and enlivened with vibrant hues of magenta fabrics, theatrical lighting, atmospheric bird songs and thousands of pink butterflies hovering overhead.

The design integrates the industrial aesthetics of the 19th century steel, steam, and coal industries as seen in the Kings Cross, Euston and St Pancras train station as well as the Victorian gasworks and coal drops preserved in the area. The colour Magenta was first synthesized as a by-product of the coal industry. It became and still is a very prevalent colour in the fashion industry so provides a direct conceptual link to the nearby world-renowned British college of Fashion, Art and Design: Central St Martin.

Blue Sky Hospitality

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