Premier Hospitality

The Hall at Intu Lakeside

The Hall
Written by Roma Publications

The Hall at Intu Lakeside

 

Built environment specialist Extentia Group has delivered a unique collaborative dining experience known as ‘The Hall,’ as part of a £72 million extension at Intu Lakeside. The Hall is the first out-of-town offering from award-winning operator Market Halls, who already run two successful venues in London.

Designed to evoke the theatre and energy of street food from across the globe, customers are able to enjoy a variety of cuisines from local independent food and drinks operators from across Essex and the South East. This is the first concept of its kind in the region, creating a brand-new casual dining destination for Intu Lakeside’s 20 million annual visitors.

Simon Anderson, CCO of Market Halls said: “This is an exciting new avenue for Market Halls with The Hall providing a new and vibrant social dining option for the millions of visitors to Intu Lakeside every year. We were delighted to partner with Extentia Group who helped realise our vision for the space.”

Four of Extentia Group’s specialist brands – Styles&Wood, SpaceInvader, Ralph Capper and GDM, worked with the Market Halls team to deliver the 14,500sqft extension at Intu Lakeside over a 14-week period.

  • Project management and fit-out experts Styles&Wood built six kitchens, a coffee shop, a food truck pop-up shop, two bars and a canteen style seating area for 680 people.
  • Award-winning interior design consultants SpaceInvader worked closely with Market Halls to deliver their creative vision. Taking an industrial approach, the space created not only communicates the values of the Market Hall brand, but also acts as a supporting backdrop to showcase and enhance the individual food traders.
  • Supporting Space Invader’s design proposition, furniture supplier Ralph Capper provided all furniture elements to complement the design intent of the building structure, through clever finishes and high-quality materials. Using unorthodox and tailored manufacturing techniques, they delivered a mixture of bespoke, design-classic seating and tables.
  • Extentia Group’s building services design consultants, GDM supported the design by taking a smart thinking and technical approach to MEP (mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering) service supporting the interior design concept.

Speaking to PREMIER HOSPITALITY MAGAZINE about the project, John Williams from SpaceInvader said: “We were given a loose pictorial-based brief for the project.  It gave a flavour of what the Market Halls’ team wanted to achieve at a very high level and it was up to us to interpret that and turn it into an exciting social dining experience.

“We used simple design ideas such as back-lit projected signage to create vibrancy and colour, making sure that the different food brands had their own presence in the space. From an interior design perspective, we took a ‘less is more’ approach.  To get the feel we wanted, we used a dark, industrial backdrop, which allowed the brands and punchy graphics to shine through.

“We invested a lot of our time considering the layout, the flow of people and how we could create pockets of space that would enable social gatherings. By putting the bar in the middle and front of the space it’s created a real focal point for customers, but equally it acts as a beacon to entice passers-by to come inside”
Tony Lenehan, CEO, Extentia Group commented: “The project showcases Extentia Group’s expertise in coordinating and delivering an end-to-end complementary suite of built environment services – from fit-out, M&E and interior design, right through to bespoke joinery, decoration and furniture. We are delighted to have played a role in creating a new and vibrant social dining experience for one of the UK’s most popular leisure destinations. It has been a great opportunity to share our ambition in supporting independent retailers to create the best possible customer experience.”

Williams added: “We work on many hospitality and leisure outlets, typically hotel, restaurants and bars. The food market hall arena is an increasing trend and we’ve really enjoyed getting involved with this project, particularly using the less is more approach. It is not an over-designed scheme so working at pace with this client has been really rewarding and we’re really proud if the work we’ve delivered. We hope visitors to this Market Hall really enjoy the dining experience we’ve created and we look forward to working on more venues with Market Halls in the future. ”

The Hall

79group

79group is one of the UK’s leading experts in fully integrated, end-to-end MEP and lighting design, supply and installation for commercial, retail and professional environments.

79group is an MEP contractor with its own lighting manufacture division, setting it apart from its competitors. The company work with some of the UK’s leading main contractors and many high-end, luxury retail brands. Through its partnerships, 79group has worked on a variety of projects and frameworks in the banking, healthcare, retail, leisure and commercial sectors.

The company was recently involved with unique dining experience ‘The Hall’ at Intu Lakeside, as project’s lighting supplier and electrical installer. In just six weeks, 79group provided 10 x 4m LED dimmable extrusions, 28 pendants dotted throughout the hall and the festoon lighting. CAT 6 data cabling to feed the till points to all 6 kitchens and 3 bar areas was also installed.

Claire Forrest, Business Development Manager, said:

“This project is a new social concept dining option and the first out of town offering from Market Halls so it was exciting to be awarded the electrical and lighting package. We thrive on taking on new concepts and challenges and applying our knowledge and expertise of MEP and lighting installations to a cross section of works.

“We understand that to deliver a project we have to be part of a large team made up of a wide range of people and professions. To achieve this, our entire approach is collaborative, open and inclusive ensuring we cultivate successful relationships to deliver our collective goal, delivering a dynamic project.”

To find out more, please visit www.79group.co.uk.

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Roma Publications