Tinderbox, Merchant City, Glasgow

Graven designed this cool urban espresso bar as an extension of the successful Tinderbox brand.

We designed the first Tinderbox in 1998 on Byres Road, as an outlet to showcase Matthew Algie coffee and a laboratory to test their products (Matthew Algie was the UK’s leading independent coffee roaster). It quickly became a local landmark, and we went on to design a North London version in Islington in 2001 – another big hit with the locals but with much greater take-out business.

This next Tinderbox, situated in Glasgow’s Merchant City, moved things into a new generation of coffee. It still had that Tinderbox feel, but eight years on needed to be quite different from the original. We wanted to avoid materials with which Tinderbox customers were familiar.

Our brief was to create a multi-purpose space which people would visit not only for its full-bodied coffee (in addition to its wine and beer) but also for a personality enriched by live music and exclusive shopping.