Hidden Gallery
Client
Hidden Gallery
Services
Exhibition Design
Production Management
Hidden Gallery is an established art gallery with spaces in Bristol, Brighton, and Bath. They recently opened a London showroom space in Camden at 31 Oval Road, within a larger 1930s building.
Originally built as a dining room for railway workers but never used as such, the building was purchased by the architectural practice Anthony Richardson & Partners and Charles Crittall (from Crittall windows) and beautifully restored in the 1980s.
The gallery is situated on the South Pavilion, a 'studio in the sky', benefiting from panoramic windows and a sprung wooden floor. Our task was to create a bespoke display system for this unique space that would take the light constraints into consideration. Conservation, rotation of artworks, effortless access to larger pieces, safety, and overall display were all addressed in our brief.
We devised two rotating walls on singular axes, each with two additional walls operating on hinges and supporting wheels. Each rotating wall was fixed between the building slab and beam above, with its structure concealed and floor plates levelled with the existing wooden floors.
We took cues from the existing building regarding materials and added details linked to its history. The side handles on each wall directly relate to the wooden ones originally designed by Anthony Richardson and are still visible on the floor below. The result is an evolving gallery space, allowing for various configurations but intrinsically linked to its past.
