Carpet? It’s been overlooked in hospitality for too long, reckons Shayne Brady. “I think it’s coming back to restaurants big time,” says the Irish-born, London-based interior designer who, having worked in partnership with residential designer Emily Williams since 2013, finally went solo last year. He’s gone on to win contracts for one big-name London project after another: Harrods, Mandarin Oriental and The Savoy, as well as The Park restaurant for Jeremy King, the restaurateur behind Le Caprice, The Ivy and The Wolseley.

“There’s the acoustic quality to carpet, for one; post-Covid people are much more sensitive to noise, and that has really risen up the list of client concerns,” Brady explains. “But there’s also something very luxurious about carpet, instead of wood or marble flooring, and perhaps especially in a restaurant [given the opportunities to ruin it]. We’ve gone for burgundy red, so it will be forgiving, but it will still need to be maintained with love.”

The project Brady is referring to is his latest, and possibly greatest, to date: working with King — as he has done for the last 16 years — on a revamp of Simpson’s in the Strand, which closed in early 2020 and will fully reopen on 9 March 2026. For almost 200 years Simpson’s, and the Grade II-listed building it stands in, has been arguably the capital’s definitive high society and artistic epicentre: it opened as a coffee shop and scene-setting chess club in 1828, has been in its present location since 1904, attracted everyone from Dickens and Churchill to Hepburn and Hitchcock, and was so traditional in its feel and outlook that women were only admitted into its main dining room in 1984.

Brady was charged with taking its two bars, two restaurants and a small ballroom — respectively Simpson’s Bar and Nellie’s, the Grand Divan and Romano’s, and the Assembly Room — and making them feel coherent but distinct. Trickily, the brief was to refurbish them to give the sense that nothing much has changed.

“It’s incredible that Jeremy had his eye on [this project] for 20 years, and I feel very fortunate to be bringing such a loved place back to life. To be conscious of its long history while also making it more relevant for the modern guest,” explains Brady. “The idea is that Simpson’s should feel like every one of its owners had loved it and the place has evolved to be what it is today. The result is not a theme park — it’s not a Disney version of Simpson’s — there’s a beautiful heritage feel to it that brings a lot of warmth.”

That emphasis on cosiness fits nicely with Brady’s own guiding principle for hospitality design: that the best-designed room is one people want to be in. “We can design an amazing room but ultimately what brings it alive is the people who use it,” Brady insists. “[That’s why] the first thing I do when starting on a design is stand in the space and think about how I feel, and how I want to feel.”

All the same, much of what Brady has and has not been able to do with Simpson’s has been guided by the fact that it’s English Heritage-listed. “We weren’t allowed, for example, to strip off some historic wallpaper — all grapes and leaves — which I didn’t think was appropriate for a late-night venue, but we could drape fabric over it,” he says. Plumbing in additional toilets, meanwhile, proved to be an almost Herculean task: “While I can’t believe I’m talking so much about toilets, believe me, guests will notice if they’re queuing because there’s not enough of them,” he laughs.

In only one of the Simpson’s rooms — Nellie’s, a basement bar with a 3am licence and named for past Simpson’s regular Dame Nellie Melba — has Brady been given carte blanche. That, he says, is sometimes harder than having the anchor point of heritage to work with. Still, it’s clear he’s had fun with this “lush and seductive” space: over the entrance stands a specially commissioned 6ft high portrait of Melba, while above the fireplace, feeling the heat perhaps, lies a counterpoint in the form of a portrait of the Duke of Orleans, the favourite of Melba’s many lovers. In further homage to Simpson’s history, other walls are festooned with black-and-white photographs recounting its long story as a popular West End venue for theatrical types.

“The trick is to be respectful of the past but also to design well for the future,” Brady explains. “I don’t think designers should ever just rip out what’s already there, even if it’s not to our taste. We should always work to the legacy of a place. Even if you’re designing a new restaurant [from scratch], you’re part of the process of creating a legacy.” Technology, he adds, does not help: it’s encouraged hospitality design to embrace a breakneck development pace when, as he puts it, “Back in the day, designers had more time to draft beautiful ideas and let them evolve. Of course, I understand that deadlines matter…”

That respect for the past comes with lessons for modern designers, too. Brady cites, by way of example, the size of the heritage banquettes in the Grand Divan, with its Edwardian chandeliers, timber panelling, and red velvet and leather upholstery. While his instinct would be to have low-backed banquettes to better open up the space, these are head height, two settles with a table forming a kind of box. “That’s not something I’d ever do but, actually, that way each table feels like a private room, even if it’s in the middle of the restaurant,” says Brady. “That’s the kind of unexpected detail I really appreciate.”

So, he adds, does Jeremy King. Which is important. If some restaurateurs are happy to pass the baton when it comes to interior design, King is famously hands-on — in a way that Brady highly regards. “Jeremy is totally involved,” he admits. “I say that with love. We never stop talking about tinkering. That could be a nightmare with some clients but Jeremy is the ultimate restaurateur. You don’t work for him but with him.”

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