PANTECHNICON: THE NEW PLACE TO EXPERIENCE NORDIC AND JAPANESE CULTURES UNDER ONE ROOF
Set over five floors in London’s Belgravia, Pantechnicon is an ambitious new retail and dining hub centred around Japanese and Nordic design. Visitors are able to experience Restaurants, Bars & Cafés, as well as a curated store filled with selected items that showcase craftsmanship from both countries.
Pantechnicon aims to offer authentic experiences from The Nordics and Japan, such as: “guest chefs, tastings with brewers, distillers and wine makers, workshops with craftspeople and installations by artists and brands.” unagi chatted with Kylie Clark, Head of Japanese Experiences, on how you can enjoy Pantechnicon outside from April 12th and what more we can expect to be opening up in 2021.
As London opens once again, Pantechnicon is the perfect new dining destination to enjoy outdoors. On entering the building, Café Kitsune (meaning ‘fox’ in Japanese) currently serves take away coffee and drinks. Sachi Yatai is the best place to enjoy some take away Japanese street food, until the full Sachi experience, a 180-seat space, opens with a restaurant, bar, cocktail lounge and street terrace later in the year.
The second floor 70-seat restaurant Eldr (meaning ‘fire’ in Old Norse) will have a seasonal menu showcasing Nordic cooking methods and traditions (and will open pending the lifting of social distancing rules).
On the top floor of Pantechnicon is the 130-seat Roof Garden with a retractable electric glass roof for drinking and dining in all seasons. For those wondering what’s on the menu on the roof, Eldr will also be catering the outdoor terrace with an all-day small plate and snack menu. We are most looking forward to enjoying the south-facing garden designed by Finnish horticulturist and garden designer, Taina Suonio.
Pantechnicon was built in 1830 as an art and crafts centre before being turned into an upmarket warehouse for residents to store artifacts from their travels around the world. Located on pedestrianised Motcomb Street, Belgravia, Pantechnicon has kept its original London heritage façade, but the visitor is met inside with its raw warehouse interior. In 1939, one of Japan’s most prolific art collectors, Kojiro Matsukata, lost 900 pieces of work in a huge fire at Pantechnicon. Matsukata’s collection spanned the globe with approximately 10,000 precious works, including Water Lilies by Claude Monet, Rodin’s sculptures and paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Paul Gauguin.
Whilst the personal collections have gone, modern visitors can enjoy The Edit concept store on the ground floor showcasing an impeccable curation of over 150 Japanese and Nordic brands. Items include handcrafted gifts, designer tech, ceramics, fashion and with outdoor equipment from tokyobike, bags from Porter Yoshida and footwear from suicoke to name a few brands. The Studio on the first-floor deep dives into the world of wellbeing lifestyle, with select beauty products, emerging brands and a large experiential space for events. Beauty products from Bijo are on display who have a mission to introduce Europe to the Japanese wellbeing lifestyle.
We are sure that our local London crowd will also enjoy Sakaya, meaning bottle shop in Japanese, which will provide visitors with a world-class curation of boutique Japanese whisky, sake, shochu, umeshu and yuzushu.
We cannot wait for the city to open more to enjoy the many spaces that Pantechnicon has not yet been able to unveil.
Address: 19 Motcomb Street, London, SW1X 8LB
Nearest Underground Stations: Knightsbridge, Sloane Square