The Wellhead is a relatively small cocktail bar design for Liqui, but this did not lessen the amount of consideration and attention to detail that we gave to the project. This new coffee and cocktails venue is housed in a historic listed building in the Finzels Reach area of Bristol’s vibrant city centre. Therefore it was an important part of the brief that we retained original features such as the exposed brickwork and arched windows in our interior design. It was also a tight space and the building was an awkward shape which meant that to make it function as a cocktail bar design some careful space planning was required with due consideration given to ‘flow’. This led to a bespoke angular coffee counter design which allowed customers to move freely in front of it while providing sufficient space for staff and storage behind.

Another thing that had to be borne in mind, was that the business model called for the venue to be a coffee shop by day and a cocktail bar by night. We designed the lighting to be brighter during the daytime and more subdued in the evening to completely change the atmosphere of the interior. To soften the industrial look of the bare building we added a plethora of plants hanging from the beams which also gave the illusion of lowering the ceiling – creating a better-proportioned room. Plants were also an integral part of the outside space and were used in the canopy of the covered deck, as well as forming living walls. With the addition of lighting, the outside terrace (which overlooks the water on the South bank of Bristol Floating Harbour) increases the size of this otherwise small cocktail bar design by creating another attractive seating area.