5 Hertford Street
Robin and Lucy Birley brought designer Rifat Özbek to the preview party for our sale at Christie’s South Kensington in April 2010. They were looking for esoteric things for the club they were going to open in Mayfair on the site of the old ‘Tiddy Dols’ [sic]. They mentioned that they had been thinking of calling us to see if we could help with the club’s central courtyard garden. In the sale we had a collection of early medieval corbels; we suggested these might be the kernel of a way of decorating a dim internal outdoor space – where it was evident it would be difficult to grow very floriferous plants – after the manner of the Soane Museum. They bought the corbels and we joined the design team. We have been asked to do many similar courtyard gardens since.