Colourful restaurant Motorino offers peek into neighbouring Fitzrovia chapel

English interiors studio North End Design drew on 1980s Japanese and American boardrooms, British car companies from the 60s and wood-panneled recording studios when designing this restaurant in London with an unusual cut-out feature.

Located in London's central Fitzrovia neighbourhood, Motorino is the second restaurant North End Design has created for chef Stevie Parle following the colour-saturated Town in Covent Garden.

The studio drew on some of the same visual research when designing Motorino, designer Samuel Hosker told Dezeen.

"The sound system is fantastic, and the open private dining space has been designed to suggest a recording studio – comfy carpeted flooring enveloped by 1970's timber panelling," he said.

"We also leaned into the research from Town – Japanese and American city board rooms of the 1980s and British designers like Alan Aldridge and Hapshash and the coloured coat."

Hosker also looked to British car companies from the 1960s when designing the interior, which inspired the restaurant's bright red, yellow and green hues.

A steel bar, lit by hanging steel lamps, welcomes guests to the 150-seat restaurant. Further in, wood-panelled walls meet bright yellow ceramic tiles, red-painted doors and a sculptural dark-green ceiling.

"The previous restaurant design was a light oak, pale Scandinavian-looking place," Hosker said. "Too big, too bright – it had no intimacy, the proportions were awful, acoustics were poor. This influenced the colour scheme a lot."

To create a more intimate space, the studio also lowered the ceiling.

"We dropped the ceiling datum and covered it in a dark forest green acoustic sheet, which really helped both the proportions and sound levels – it didn't feel as cavernous following this move," Hosker said.

"We wanted pops of colour like we achieved in Town, but just a bit darker and moodier to help the vibe feel right."

Motorino also has an unusual design feature – a cut-out that looks directly into Fitzrovia Chapel next door, allowing restaurant guests to peek into the Byzantine-style space, although it can be closed from the chapel side.

The opening had previously been covered up, but Hosker decided to keep it after spending time in the space during the renovation.

"We had been thinking about putting glass concertina doors in front to screen and back light from behind, but once we lived with it for some time, we grew fond of this quirky detail," he explained.

"It had nothing to do with the design or concept – it just felt right to keep it."

Hosker used a similar material palette as he did for its sister restaurant Town when creating Motorino, including "pyrolave, lacquer paint finishes, heavy velvets, sumptuous leathers, reclaimed flooring and glossy ceramic tiles".

"We wanted this restaurant to feel like a sibling, similar but with its own character," he said.

North End Design previously also designed Italian delicatessen Lina Stores in South Kensington, which has a distinctive pistachio-green interior.

The photography is by Mark Scott unless otherwise stated.

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