Drylining contractor Simplicity has helped its client Berry Bros. & Rudd, the oldest wine and spirit merchant in Britain, to create a new entertainment and wine tasting facility. ‘The Sussex Cellar’ is in the basement of Berry Bros. & Rudd’s St James’s Street headquarters in London.

The requirement was to form traditional vaulted ceilings to give a feel of historic Spanish wine cellars, known as ‘bodegas’. The original concept was to construct these vaults in brick, bSimplicity - Berry Bros & Ruddut it proved difficult to find a company capable of doing this and the cost was exorbitant.

Simplicity, well-known for producing high-quality fibrous plaster, GRG, GRC and historic restoration works, was approached by main contractor Galliford Try to assist. The company’s solution utilised GRG on a metal framework to form the vaulted shapes with 8,000 handmade clay tiles from Kent being cut to size and stuck to the GRG structure. The ‘pointing’ was then carried out in lime to achieve an authentic look.

www.simplicitymouldings.co.uk