Charles Asprey, who financed the development, and the directors of Cabinet Gallery, Martin McGowen and Andrew Wheatley, had been looking for nearly a decade to find a permanent gallery space. They eventually found a site in the former Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens a venue for music, dining and art established in 1729. The site was the irregular footprint of the demolished Lord Clyde Pub, next to a former service road. Working with friends of Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and Lambeth Council we were able to consolidate the site and enlarge the public park by incorporating the road.
Trevor Horne Architects worked collaboratively with Charles Asprey and the gallery directors, plus a number of their artists to develop the design.
The brief was for a bespoke gallery that would reflect the iconoclastic and international reputation of Cabinet. The result is a five storey brick building marking an entrance to the park with a twelve-sided gallery that determined the overall form of the building – exhibition and office space on the lower levels, a fully glazed events space on top with flats between, the flats helping finance the project.
Materials include Petersen Kolumba bricks, oak window frames, exposed concrete, Basalt flooring. The concrete Cobiax structure allows for a column free gallery space and gives greater flexibility for the upper floors layout whilst reducing CO2 emissions.
