Cooplands having acquired The Old Post Office in Hull, which had in its time been converted into a local radio station on the first and second floors, had now been empty for some time, disused and nearly derelict.

The initial idea was to convert the ground floor into a commercial retail space for

letting and introduce a new entrance at the ground floor, to serve as access to the first and second floors.

It was intended that we would convert one of the remaining floors into a Cooplands Secret Garden Restaurant.

After many months of work clearing the building of all its old interior fittings, preparations started on the ground floor to create a tidy retail shell. This was successfully let to Sainsbury’s to open an town mini store in the heart of Hull.

The first floor had a higher internal ceiling height. Very early on in the project it was decided that we could provide a raised area to the internal window elevations, this would mean the creation of a large seating space, where customers could view the streets of Hull from a panoramic view point.

The Secret Garden Brand had been up-dated, but with each new project the interiors evolved to suit the buildings interior, and it would be no different with this project.

The Old Post Office would be the largest Secret Garden restaurant Coopland’s would operate being approximately 180 seats and 400 sq mtrs.

The creation of the different floor levels and seating areas within building, and the introduction of the now familiar central oak pagoda made for a visually exciting restaurant.

Pendant lights were positioned in front of the large windows to accentuate the raised seating area which also created a visual interest from the outside of the building, helping to advertise the restaurant to the passing customers.

The interior was finished with the brand colours and wall mirror features, but being on a larger scale with different floor levels, oak balustrading with wrought iron feature bars were introduced to the raised areas. A 6 meter run of upholstered bench seating was introduced to the central pagoda seating area, and larger scaled Italian scenic landscape artworks were positioned through-out the restaurant walls.

The restaurant has been a great success and has helped to strengthen the Secret Garden Brand

Andrew Farr completed this work at DWA Architects of York