Artfarm Is Launching Its First London Venue This Autumn

One of this year’s most hotly anticipated restaurant openings is a new project from Artfarm, the hospitality arm of art group Hauser & Wirth. It will be the first London venture for the group, who is best known for opening The Fife Arms in Braemar, Scotland, as well as Somerset’s Roth Bar & Grill.

Just opened, The Audley is a lovingly restored pub, restaurant and events venue spread across five floors in Mayfair, with a strong art theme and excellent food offering. It’s taking over the space that used to be another Mayfair pub, also called The Audley. Built in 1888, The Audley was designed by Thomas Verity, the man who designed the exterior of the pavilion at Lord’s Cricket Ground, and while the building is undergoing a big revamp, it will remain true to its listed exterior and interiors.

The Audley Public House sits on street level, a traditional community pub, with Mount St. Restaurant on the first floor. This then leads to three floors housing four beautifully designed spaces, each available for private hire.

Art sits at the heart of the project, with the venue poised to showcase many important works alongside specially commissioned site-specific art interventions created by Hauser & Wirth’s roster of artists. It also boasts some pretty impressive interiors, with the renovation spearheaded by Paris-based Luis Laplace, the designer behind various Hauser & Wirth spaces including Somerset and Menorca.

Food is overseen by British chef Jamie Shears, who has worked with a whole host of top chefs including Gordon Ramsay, Chris Galvin and Jason Atherton, and was most recently executive chef at CUT, London. The menu draws inspiration from London’s culinary history, with seasonal ingredients a key focus, some grown at Artfarm’s own Dursdale Farm in Somerset. Expect elevated pub favourites, like Cornish haddock and chips, a beef and ale pie, scotch eggs and oysters.

The Fife Arms

Artfarm was founded in 2014 by gallerists and art collectors Iwan and Manuela Wirth. Its ethos is to adapt and reinvent unique sites with great stories which weave together art, community, people, place and learning.

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