The Vision
“Live surrounded by what you love. In our House, there are no rules.”
Built in 1856, St Michael’s is a former clergy house set in a hidden enclave of ecclesiastical buildings in a sleepy square that time forgot, as the city was built up around them.
House of Hackney had just turned 10 and our dream was to find a special building in Hackney, East London, where it all started around our kitchen table in 2011. St Michael’s was the first place we came across.
We are fascinated by old buildings and their history, and when we stumbled across the clergy house with its gothic architecture and stained glass windows, we knew that it was the perfect home for House of Hackney.
The vision was for a new brand home that would house our collections and our team; to be a creative hub for the House and its values, where creativity is championed and story tellers and artists sit alongside each other. After the pandemic, we wanted to bring people back together again. The ambition was to create an emotive retail experience where people could see, touch and feel the collections; a sensory journey where each room has a scent, a soundtrack and curated art on its walls, where people could be immersed in beauty and discover inspiration and the stories of our collections.
We thought long and hard about how we wanted to present St. Michael’s. It’s important to listen to the building and get to know it - how the light falls at different times of the day and what the energy and atmosphere is in each room. We revived the rooms’ traditional Victorian names and purposes - from The Parlour and Snug to The Music Room and Privy - and we gave each space an aesthetic and a sensory mood. We had an overall creative vision for St Michael’s but wanted to push the boundaries further, so we called in architects Busby Webb, whose work we had long admired.
Working with them was a dream collaboration and with their understanding of House of Hackney’s spirit and ethos, they took our ideas to new heights while respecting the heritage of this old building and reflecting the pillars of House of Hackney - creativity, compassion and community.
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The Playroom
“It’s always been important to us that we help bridge the imagination gap, allowing people to dream and making those dreams a reality.”
Co-Founder, Javvy M Royle
Merging traditional design consultations with cutting-edge technology, we have created an innovative digital platform that encourages our customers to play with the collections, to digitally dream up a scheme, project it onto a wall and see how our House will work in their home. Enter ‘The Playroom’.
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Something Old Something New
In these austere times we wanted St Michael’s to sing with colour. The space was a blank canvas and it was the first project to showcase the House of Hackney paint collection, ‘The Art of Nature’. We infused each room with nature’s tonal harmony, using colour to accent the building’s exquisite architectural details.
It was our aim to depict the rich tapestry of life so that each room felt that it was lived in and loved. As a B Corp brand, a light environmental footprint is essential to our House, and so we made a pledge that 50% of everything at St Michael’s would be recycled. We breathed new life into old furniture, used deadstock fabric and lovingly restored antiques. For the new pieces, we worked with our heritage factories to create ‘Future Heirlooms’ - from embroidered bed linens and hand-carved beds to traditionally woven Axminster carpets - these are investment pieces that are made to last a lifetime …. and then some!
Fill this House with Art
Art maketh the room; even more so when it’s hung on a beautiful papered wall! At House of Hackney, our heart is in the art and we are proud to support the community. We wanted St Michael’s to be a platform to showcase emerging artists and creatives. Gracing our House are works from independent painters, illustrators and sculptors, each available to buy, with all sales going directly to the artists.
We open our gothic doors to you. Step into our House…
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