With names like Adele, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Victoria Beckham, Pippa and Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge as fans, The Hummingbird Bakery has already become firmly established as London’s go-to bakery. Now The Hummingbird Bakery’s founder, Tarek Malouf, has set his sights on the beautiful town of Guildford to open the brand’s seventh UK store. The Hummingbird Bakery first opened in 2004 in London’s vibrant Portobello Road, home to the world-famous market and played a huge part in launching the cupcake craze that went on to grip not only London but the entire UK. Rpa:group has worked since on all six of the brand’s bakeries across London: Portobello, South Kensington, Soho, Spitalfields, Islington and Richmond.

The Hummingbird Bakery Guildford sets a new design style for the brand and is a collaboration of rpa:group’s architecture, design and project management teams. MattJames Breaks, Head of Design at rpa:group, comments, “The new bakery design is an evolution away from the previous store concept, which portrayed the look and feel of a 1950’s style kitchen. This new approach is much more Scandinavian with light, open and sophisticated interiors and wood elements backed up by complimentary surfaces to add texture, variation and interest.”

Wall finishes of the new bakery are 30% clad in ivory oak panels with a feature wall composed of hand-finished tiles and a digital mosaic of the iconic Hummingbird Bakery logo. The floor is concrete resin, interlaid with tiles around the counter area in a herringbone pattern, whilst lighting is a mix of bespoke LED halo lights and brushed copper aluminum pendant lights. The copper is also echoed in the trim of the marble tables. Customers will see individual chair seating in signature Hummingbird Bakery pinks, in addition to comfortable banquet seating in durable fabrics and complementary colours. The overall palette is neutral, with elements of pink complementing the brand colours and adding both emphasis and warmth.

Design: rpa:group