Renowned restauranteur Des Gunewardena is set to open a £10m restaurant in the historic Pillar Hall, part of the Olympia destination.
Opening next year, it will include a main restaurant, a less formal café-grill, a bar, and a basement speakeasy with music event space and a capacity of up to 600.
Gunewardena has run some of London’s best-known eateries including German Gymnasium, Coq d’Argent and Quaglino’s. This will be the third restaurant for his new D3 Collective company.
Pillar Hall was completed in 1885 alongside Olympia Grand, designed by architect Henry Edward Coe. Back then it was known as the Minor Hall, described as ‘a sumptuous oak-panelled banqueting room with marble columns and a richly moulded and decorated ceiling’.
The 30,000 sq venue is a Grade II listed building with a rich history. It is said to have been the venue for the first film screening in Britain, after London theatre impresario Sir Augustus Harris joined the board of Olympia Ltd in 1895. In more recent years, in the 1980s, Pillar Hall hosted the first ever fashion shows by Vivienne Westwood and Zandra Rhodes.