Interior designer Briony Fitzgerald and architect Stuart Forbes Associates have transformed half of the the ground floor of the New Wing in Somerset House into a light stylish interior for Spring, the first solo restaurant venture for Australian chef Skye Gyngell.  The original features of the former 19^th century dining room have been restored and enhanced by new furniture, lighting by Paul Nulty Lighting Design and artworks commissioned by Skye Gyngell to create a “feminine yet strong restaurant.”

Spring is a season of light as we emerge from the gloom of winter; of new life as plants burst into bloom and of new-born lambs. The restaurant entrance has an eye-catching contemporary chandelier by Lindsey Alelman representing twisted natural branches at the end of which are rounded luminaires which illuminate like new buds springing into life.  While the nation’s attention has been focussed on the red porcelain poppies at the Tower of London to commemorate the start of the first world war, Brazilian artist, Valeria Nascimento has filled the west walls here with a sculpture created with 5200 of her trademark porcelain petals, each individually made and mounted, to create a sculpture  which suggests the beauty and the life of plants bursting through into spring and summer.