The Morning and Night Before Christmas
Afternoon tea and champers are, by definition and nature respectively, not before noon. But this is sketch Mayfair, the restaurant cum bar cum gallery which invents the rules. Or abandons them altogether. Case is a case in point. Lower is the new upper. What’s not to love sipping like dowagers while untying ribboned cheesy toastie sliders. Bûche de Noël anyone? The zany interior has gone even more cuckoo now that the season to be very jolly is round the corner.
Opening the front door of sketch is like entering C S Lewis’s wardrobe. Florist Carly Rogers has gone to town – and country – with a snowy forestscape called Hollow Way. Carly says she “takes inspiration from across the creative world: painting, fashion, interiors, pottery, textiles, architecture and more!” So the eclecticism of sketch is the perfect partner for her displays. Fairies by florist JamJar float around the ceiling of The Glade, sketch’s bar. As Elizabeth Bowen would say, “Upstairs is crazy with dreams or love.” In The Lecture Room, the first floor restaurant of sketch, Tony Marklew’s rose strewn Christmas tree Let It Snow fits neatly under the domed ceiling.
