A Look Inside London’s Buzzing Wine and Ice Cream Bar, The Dreamery
If an Italian espresso bar, a Parisian bistro, and an English sweet shop had a love child, The Dreamery would be it.
The Dreamery in London has become quite the buzzy hot spot, not only for its playful wine and ice cream pairings (which are Charli XCX-approved) but also for the interiors, specifically the dreamscape ceiling art that illuminates the space.
Established by Alex Young and George de Vos, the founders of the nearby wine bar and restaurant Goodbye Horses, as well as the adjacent coffee shop, Day Trip, this is their third establishment in the charming yet unexpected pocket of De Beauvoir Town, a residential neighbourhood in north London. Tucked off the beaten path, the shop’s anonymous exterior heightens its mystique and lore, leaving you to wonder, Is this really it?
The atmosphere in the small, cozy space is magical. Set in a repurposed 19th-century building, it is a blend of an Italian espresso bar, a Parisian bistro, and an English sweet shop, according to de Vos and Young. The goal was to create a playful and joyful environment while rekindling a lost connection with one’s inner child through various experimental (and seasonal) ice cream flavours such as blood orange and olive oil, malted milk, and fig leaf.
This playground for adults is designed for the young at heart. What fuels this fantasy is the colourful artwork displayed across the ceiling on Japanese unryu rice paper panels, a stainless-steel bar that serves as both the ice cream counter and wine bar, soft-pink and blue handcrafted cement tiles, and mirrored walls that create a trippy distortion of the space.
Lucy Stein, the talented artist behind the whimsical illustration, calls the interior “a celestial place at the intersection of English nursery rhymes and folklore.” Her preparatory research involved work by figures from the golden age of British illustration like Walter Crane, Arthur Rackham, Kate Greenaway, and Edward Lear. “There’s the cow jumping over the moon, a spoon running alongside Humpty Dumpty, and an androgynous green being hanging out,” Stein says. “There are motifs from Omega workshop furnishings and Bernard Leach.”
The owners point out that the unryu rice paper used for the ceiling panels has a fibrous texture identical to that at Goodbye Horses across the road, establishing a connecting thread between the two establishments: “There’s a tension created between these warm materials, the richness of the ceiling art, and the stainless steel countertops and cement tiles.” This juxtaposition of materials creates an oasis to escape the mundane, a space that reminds us of life’s simple pleasures.
Young and de Vos note that the visit doesn’t start when you enter the space—instead, the location is a predecessor to the experience and design. “We’re on a Victorian leafy street in a residential area with only one other commercial premises within a 10-minute walk. So as you wander around these quiet streets in De Beauvoir, spotting a radiantly coloured unicorn cow shining brightly through the windows with an upside-down ice cream cone on its head is quite surprising,” they say. “It’s all about making the familiar feel unfamiliar.”
Photographs by Harriet Langford.
