Il Cudega | Matheson Whiteley

The brick arches beneath London's network rail lines have always been a site of concentrated and varied use - the ready-made walls and roof providing cheap or free accomodation for artists, designers, small industry and music venues.

Il Cudega is a new restaurant and deli specialising in food from the Lombardy region of Italy. It occupies one of three recently refurbished arches north of Broadway Market. Despite adding practical improvements such as upgraded services, earlier railway authority refurbishment work had erased the raw character of the original structures beneath new linings. The new interventions for Il Cudega work to form a new architectural identity which absorbs these unsympathetic additions and creates an intimate and refined room for hospitality.

The project begins with the introduction of a new dark-grey lined surface formed from reconstituted wood boards. These integrate storage, heating, display and WCs while remaining removable for periodic maintenance work to the arches.

Technical services are carefully integrated into the kitchen and entry glazing areas allowing HVAC ducting to be omitted from overhead. In its place, a new grid of hand-blown glass pendants by Jochem Holz introduce a new ceiling datum. The regularity of the grid is counterpointed by subtle variations in the pendant shape, bringing focus and warmth to the dining experience.