Ministry of Sound to launch private members' club and co-working space
Nightclub brand the Ministry of Sound is to launch its first private members' club and collaborative workspace next month.
The Ministry, located in a Victorian warehouse in London's Southwark, spans six floors. It will now include a ground-floor working space and a 5,000 sq ft restaurant and bar area.
The 70ft bar will serve breakfast through to lunch and snacks to small plates and cocktails in the evening.
Speaking to The Caterer, Dylan Murray head of F&B at Ministry of Sound, said the menu will be "forever changing" to "ensure the Ministry is as creative and innovative as possible."
For breakfast a selection of pastries, granola and muesli which will be displayed on the bar so when people arrive for work they can grab breakfast and take it to their desk, rather than picking something up from a high street coffee shop. "It's all about the visuals," Murray said.
"We have to think about how we stop people from buying their coffee on the way in and how we get people to impulse-buy their breakfast from us and for me it's all about making it look bountiful and opulent."
The lunch offering will allow workers and members to either sit down and eat or pick something up from a grab-and-go selection of sandwiches, wraps, soups, daily quiches and salads. Snacks such as muffins, nuts and chocolate bars will also be available throughout the afternoon.
As workers finish between 5pm and 6pm, the downstairs area will convert in to a bar with pizzas, small plates and cocktails. "Therefore, it becomes a community where people work together, get to know each other and can have a drink downstairs and miss the last train home! The whole concept is about making it super flexible, efficient and having an offer which provides exceptional value for money which plays a different tune during the day depending on the needs of the co-workers and members." Murray explained.
The Ministry will also offer a separate selection of vegan and vegetarian dishes. All dishes will be made using local ingredients which will be organically grown where possible. It will all be minimally processed, natural and healthy.
On the ground floor "like-minded creatives" will be able to purchase a co-working membership allowing them to use the space as an office.
Murray said: "It's a collaboration; we are creating an industry and combining people who would be able to work together while also socialising in this environment. It becomes a lifestyle thing where they work and play but also create business to business deals with people within the same industries.
"It allows people to work without having to pay extortionate rents in the city and I think that's what's driving people away from taking up long leases on buildings because the rent is exceptionally high, and they don't offer the same sort of flexibility as co-working does. When you look at start-ups and freelance businesses a lot of them are very creative and have great ideas but simply don't want to be incurring high overheads on office costs."
Alongside the bar, restaurant and co-working spaces, the Ministry will also house a 36-seater cinema, sound-proof production suites, serviced meeting rooms, event spaces and year-round outdoor courtyard seating for members and their guests.
"This is the first of its kind for Ministry," Murray added. "The model is definitely scalable, it's just about seeing how the first one performs and being able to model that for a second, third and fourth one."
