WINNER of the Best retail interior less than 200 square metres award at the WIN Awards 2014

For the first Spun store in Covent Garden, NLS was tasked with infusing a typical Victorian shop front with a sense of mystery and interior delight. The hand-crafted aspect of sweet making was the principal inspiration, with fixtures and fittings designed to evoke traditional values and processes.

A central element of the shop design is the pick and mix display. Rather than a standard grid of Perspex containers, the array of multi-coloured sweets is set within an elaborate sculptural container, inspired by scientific models of the atomic structure, and built from stainless steel cylinders contained within a framework of copper pipes. Storage units are also made from the same materials, with glass shelves suspended within the copper framework and then set against the bistro-tiled walls. A combination of matt and gloss tiles are arranged in a criss-cross geometric pattern, with the deep bevelled tile edges adding texture and shape to the walls.

Above the counter are four Jo Hammerborg pendant lamps, a reissue of a 1963 design finished in copper and resembling molten drops of chocolate. The overall effect is part laboratory, part wonderland, a design that reflects the fact that Spun’s customers are no longer just children, but also office workers, tourists, passers-by and true aficionados of handmade goods.