Sketch is the perennially cool hub of fine dining and contemporary art in Mayfair. Its four, ever-changing spaces serve up haute couture and haute cuisine by the Michelin star-spangled plateful.
If you haven’t been there yet, you may well recognise it by the obligatory bathroom selfies crop that up on your feed. This is because it is obligatory to let the world know you have been there. This is because sketch is perennially cool. Far cooler though, in our books, are literary goddesses – Jane Austen being the coolest – and at sketch this spring, she is truly getting her flowers. For the 11th edition of sketch in Bloom, the Grade II* listed space blossoms into a spectacular floral fantasy, celebrating the beloved author’s 250th birthday.
From 1 May to 1 June 2025, each of sketch’s storied rooms will be overtaken by whimsical installations and immersive landscapes from a team of stellar artists and designers. Expect a full-blown sensory reverie of wild English gardens, handwritten vignettes, parasols in bloom and wisteria dripping from chandeliers. Part immersive art installation, part literary dining experience, and wholly committed to floral excess, it’s less an exhibition and more a portal into a romanticised Austenian England.
Step through sketch’s iconic neoclassical doors and you’ll find yourself not in Mayfair, but somewhere deep in Jane Austen’s imagination. The façade is crowned with a cascading archway of clematis, roses, foxgloves and buttercups, thanks to Lucy Vail Floristry, whose sustainable installations bring Austen’s rural rhapsodies to life. Move further inside, beyond the reception, and the entrance hall bursts into a floricultural sensorial feast: think wild meadows beneath your feet, regency blue panelling, birdsong overhead, and painter Meg Boscowen’s bucolic murals blooming in every alcove.
The centrepiece in this first room is a striking pergola where books and pages seem to float down from the domed ceiling, surrounding a writing desk where visitors can pose as Austen herself for a signature obligatory sketch photo.
“We want guests to feel as though they are within Jane’s imagination,” says Lucy Vail Floristry’s director, Autumn de Wilde. “As if she’s writing as they walk through her mind.”
The journey continues into The Glade, where Vail gives her tree installation a regency twist. Lace parasols adorn the canopy above, bursting with flowers in sugar-almond tones which, in turn, beckon one into the Lecture Room & Library. Beneath the chandelier, a majestic wisteria tree rises, its lilac blooms entwined with fresh bark and moss, invoking both nature and opulence. “We’ve crafted a central wisteria tree that reflects the elegance and whimsy of Austen’s world,” says Van Helden. “It’s a celebration of the lilacs and purples already in the space, but also a portal into her romantic imagination.”
Even the loos are blooming. Designer Ricky Paul turns the famous Pod Loos into a lush dreamscape, where preserved rose petals wind around staircases and topiary trees flank your path. A Jane Austen figure, wrought in moss, presides over it all, surrounded by a garden in every imaginable shade of pink and purple.
Of course, no immersive dining experience would be complete without, well, dining. Afternoon tea – priced at £115 per person – is served in a silver ornate tea set and includes a glass of Pommery Brut Royal. It’s delicate, decadent, and delightfully thematic. For something more lavish, a 3-Michelin-Star lunch menu (£150) awaits in the Lecture Room & Library, while sketch’s bars offer a limited-edition floral cocktail menu in collaboration with Champagne Pommery.
To mark the occasion, sketch has partnered with Penguin to release exclusive collector’s editions of Pride and Prejudice and Emma – just 200 of each are available. A curated series of workshops and readings in The Parlour will run throughout the month, with a special guest announcement still under wraps.
With bespoke floral uniforms by in-house designer Sonia Taouhid and a soundtrack curated for every room by sketch’s Music Director, Mathieu Massadian, this is a celebration that runs through every inch of the space – petal by petal, note by note, line by line.
I couldn’t summarise the experience better than the lady herself and so I’ll step aside for the sign off: “To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.”
