The Bluebird Garage on the Kings Road was built in 1924 as Europe’s largest motor-car facility, selling petrol, parts and servicing, and providing overnight accommodation for lady drivers and their chauffers (in two separate wings, of course!). During its long decline the building subsequently served as an ambulance station and latterly an indoor market and photographic studios.

Appointed jointly by the building’s owners and D+D London (then Conran Restaurants), Conran & Partners master-minded the transformation of the Grade II* listed building into a mixed-use complex comprising a 250-seat restaurant, a private dining club, a café, food-store and flower shop.

The base-build phase of the project involved a substantial remodelling of two of the three street elevations, the addition of three new cores and the partial reconstruction of the roof to incorporate new plant rooms. The sensitive renovation of the exterior was complex, including repair of the art-deco street frontage’s fire-resistant ‘copper-light’ screens, restoration of the faience and wrought-iron boundary wall and replacement of the unusual diamond-pattern asbestos roof tiles with a safe modern equivalent eventually sourced in the Netherlands.

The garage forecourt was re-paved with stone and granite setts, and a concrete steel and glass canopy replaced the island of petrol pumps to accommodate a fruit and vegetable store and outdoor food preparation areas. Bluebird’s restored ‘public face’ dramatically announces a rejuvenation that has had a significant impact on the fortunes of this formerly rather un-fashionable end of the Kings Road

"Conran & Partners restoration and conversion has been careful of the building and of its original spirit…an uncluttered and largely undecorated celebration of the intrinsic qualities of structure and space, and the inherent quality of carefully chosen ingredients."
Penny McGuire, Architectural Review, July 1997.

• Civic Trust Award 1997