Sosharu London by Neri&Hu: A Japanese Minka Reinterpreted in Clerkenwell
The traditional house as a starting point
Sosharu, created for restaurateur Jason Atherton in London's Clerkenwell neighbourhood, is a restaurant where the architecture provides a setting for contemporary Japanese dining without copying a historic interior. Neri&Hu took the minka, a traditional Japanese rural house, as a conceptual reference and translated it into a series of timber enclosures. These house-like forms sit within the larger building, allowing guests to encounter different degrees of privacy and social activity.
Rather than treat the Japanese reference as an applied decorative theme, the architects focused on the relationship between structure, enclosure and human scale. The timber volumes create distinct destinations within the restaurant and bring an approachable, domestic character to its hospitality programme. The idea is not to reproduce a village literally, but to reinterpret how buildings and gardens can shape encounters.
Moving through an imagined garden
The plan imagines movement around the inserted houses as a walk through an informal garden. Transition spaces mark the passage from one area to another, and views into the dining rooms change as people move. The contrast between circulation and enclosure encourages visitors to discover the programme rather than understand the whole restaurant from the entrance.
Wooden frames and screens connect the interior to traditions of crafted domestic architecture. Their repeated members bring rhythm to the space, while more solid walls provide a quieter backdrop for seating and service. The design uses the relationship between light and enclosure to distinguish the restaurant's different dining experiences.
Timber screens and social dining
Timber is essential to the character of the principal restaurant. The visible joinery and careful proportions suggest an inhabited construction rather than a neutral commercial room. The furniture and screens establish a human scale, allowing conversation, food and the activity of the dining room to remain prominent within a clear architectural framework.
This restrained material language supports different modes of dining. The open areas offer contact with the atmosphere of the restaurant, while more contained spaces are suited to smaller groups. The visual relationship between them is carefully managed, giving guests both intimacy and a sense of belonging to a shared hospitality setting.
The Kisetsu chef's table
The Kisetsu space offers a more concentrated culinary experience. Associated with the chef's table, it is differentiated through the use of indigo-coloured noren, the traditional fabric curtains found at Japanese thresholds. Their soft form and colour introduce another material texture into an environment otherwise shaped by timber and precise construction.
These fabric partitions are more than decorative screens. They signal the transition to a particular dining experience and make a moment of arrival perceptible. Their movement contrasts with the stability of the surrounding wooden framework, showing how a small material intervention can change the atmosphere and social scale of a room.
A hidden bar beneath the restaurant
Below the restaurant, the 7 Tales bar offers a contrasting environment inspired by the intimate, animated bars of Tokyo's Golden Gai district. The basement's visual language is more energetic and layered than that of the principal dining rooms. Its difference extends the overall hospitality journey, allowing the guest to experience another interpretation of urban Japanese culture.
Sosharu demonstrates how a concept drawn from historic architecture can be reinterpreted through contemporary planning and materials. Neri&Hu's treatment of timber houses, passages, fabrics and intimate rooms builds a restaurant that feels cohesive but not uniform. The project treats dining as a sequence of spatial experiences rather than a single decorative composition.
Project details and photographic credits
Project: Sosharu by Jason Atherton, 64 Turnmill Street, London EC1M 5RR, United Kingdom. Interior architecture: Neri&Hu Design and Research Office. Restaurant brand: Jason Atherton. Project area: 495 m². Completed: April 2016. Photography: Pedro Pegenaute (images 1–2, from De La Espada), Adam Scott (image 3, from the photographer's Clayworks commission), and Julie Falconer (images 4–10, from Eater's original Sosharu report). Each caption identifies the photographer of the image shown.
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