The Museum of Comedy on London’s Bloomsbury Way hosts over 6,000 artefacts from all walks of comedy, both modern and historical. The quirky immersive space also features a venue named The Cooper Room which puts on live acts, workshops, interactive experiences, and serves as a rehearsal space and cinema. The collection has been curated by Martin Witts, director of the Leicester Square Theatre which famously hosts the countless prestigious comedy events, including the New Act of the Year competition, responsible for discovering several huge household comedy names. The museum also hosts a great selection of Edinburgh Festival previews which will begin in the next month.
In setting up the bar at this venue, the goal was to maintain an authentic theme which would match seamlessly with the classic feel of the museum’s aesthetic, and the classic British comedians featured within it. The equipment needed to be selected to correspond with the ornate bar back, which was reclaimed from a salvage yard and brought in to fit the vintage theme; after discussing our ideas with the client, we decided to go with a British classic T-Bar design, displaying a striking mahogany plinth.
Whilst setting the bar up, it became apparent pretty quickly that being in the basement with very little ventilation and just a small space to work with, would be a challenge; but we were up to it, and were able to fit a compact high-end system in just about the smallest space possible! Each keg installed in the space was fitted with a cooling jacket; excessive heat can be very detrimental to beer, accelerating the staling process, alongside putting a strain on normal cooling equipment. As the area utilized at the Museum to dispense the kegs was very warm, we fitted cooling jackets which will mean that the beer is kept chilled even in the warmest environment. The overall outcome of this job was efficient with low wastage, allowing for perfect cool beer to be served in warm and busy settings all day long.
written by Sylva Faye