Category Archives: Cutlery
The Ashes at The KIA Oval
The scene is set for the 5th and final test match as this breathtaking Ashes series culminates at the KIA Oval later this week!
We are providing all glasses, crockery and cutlery, ensuring a luxury experience for patrons in all hospitality areas.
Cheltenham Festival 2019
We were thrilled to support The Festival presented by Magners at Cheltenham for the 15th consecutive year. Guests at The Festival will join a quarter of a million others to catch the highlight of the Jump race season and enjoy undoubtedly one of the most popular racing events in the UK calendar, between March 12th and 15th 2019.
Arena’s triple-deck structure, the longest in the world at 180m long, was the focal point of The Festival, housing a sumptuous smorgasbord of course-side hospitality. The phenomenal structure will accommodate more than 25,000 hospitality guests across the four days.
The interiors, also delivered by Arena, have surpassed expectations this year. Customers had a fantastic choice of a variety of luxurious settings and stunning environments to suit every budget.
Arena also installed 1,000 Clearview, tiered, terraced seats in the Guinness Stand and 1,000 seats in the Best Mate Stand and the Head on Stand, ensuring festival goers don’t comprise on comfort when viewing the thrilling racing. Several viewing platforms and crucially, standby cover during the event complete the Arena seating offering.
Well Dressed Tables, Arena’s furniture hire and catering equipment hire company supplied over 15,000 covers of catering equipment across the site using some more quirky pieces for Chez Roux, Theatre Restaurant, Bentley and the new Horse & Groom Pub. This included new bespoke Marble plates, coloured Highgate water glasses and our eclectic range of gold cutlery.
Christopher Piggott, Managing Director of Well Dressed Tables, explains:
‘’We’re delighted to have supplied The Festival with a vast range of catering equipment and furniture across the site with a key focus on the Tented Village. Significant investment was made into bespoke new ranges including new furniture and bespoke pieces of catering equipment. Our team has done a fantastic job working together to deliver my favourite Cheltenham Festival of the last few years, many of the new areas have been real show stoppers’’.
Arena’s furniture hire specialists, Spaceworks provided a wide range of furniture across multiple areas of The Festival site, including The Jockey Club Chalet, Final Fence Restaurant, Chez Roux Boxes and the new Horse & Groom Pub. The array of furniture supplied from the company’s extensive inventory included Oak Cross Back Chairs and matching bespoke made Wooden Dining Tables, Spectra Dining Chairs, new Blenheim Soft Furnishings and more.experiences offered to VIP guests are truly memorable.
Wimbledon Championships 2017
Arena UK & Europe returned to Wimbledon supplying the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) with a wide range of temporary event for a thrilling fortnight of Championship tennis, July 3rd to 16th, 2017.
The event infrastructure specialist called upon the expertise of its in-house specialist divisions to supply a range of equipment including tiered seating, hospitality structures, interior design and event furnishings throughout the prestigious grounds. Spectators this year witnessed surprising early exits from Nadal, Murray and Djokovic before a triumphant Federer lifted the Championship trophy for a record 8th time.
Arena Structures provided all 21 temporary hospitality chalets throughout the grounds, 450sqm of player’s premium gymnasium space, commentary boxes, an official’s changing and rest area, autograph tents and merchandise kiosks. New for 2017 were sponsor enhancements alongside the Bank of England entrance ways and constructed a new 525sqm Qualifying Tent and Player’s Gym.
The Arena Seating team was once again entrusted to install 1,065 clearview™ seats, offering fans optimum views of the outside tennis action on Court 12. An additional 2,063 tip-up seats were installed throughout the sporting venue, including a tiered grandstand at the top of the famous Henman Hill. The team also installed a viewing platform and additional staircase up into Centre Court.
Arena UK & Europe’s sister event furnishings divisions Spaceworks and Well Dressed Tables supplied 33,311 items to the hospitality areas throughout the venue, including 29,837 items of cutlery and crockery in addition to 3,474 items of contemporary furniture.
Henley Royal Regatta and Henley Festival
Arena UK & Europe, part of Arena Group, enjoys a longstanding relationship with the event organisers of Henley Royal Regatta and Henley Festival, providing a wealth of event infrastructure across the prestigious site on the banks of the River Thames.
Arena Structures, Arena Seating, Well Dressed Tables and Spaceworks all supported the 34th Henley Festival which saw headliners Pet Shop Boys, Chaka Khan, Jess Glynne, All Saints and Mel C play to thousands of fans over the course of five evenings.
Arena Seating provided a total of 4,617 seats across the high-end contemporary arts and music festival, with 2,816 flat tip-up seats installed in front of the main ‘Floating Stage’. A further 2,419 seats provided unrivalled views of the on-stage action from a tiered covered grandstand, which included 14 removable seats for wheelchair users.
Arena Structures constructed 65 temporary structures at Henley this year for both the Regatta and Festival, including a double decker Boatman Tent which was complete with a spectator balcony.
A total of 13,810sqm of temporary structures were installed throughout the two Henley events, which welcomed a combined total of a third of a million guests, including a double deck press tent, Bridge Bar and Bridge Bar extension, a Champagne bar, Fawley Grandstand and Regatta Enclosure, a police tent, Rowing Museum and lunchtime ticket sales area.
Spaceworks and Well Dressed Tables, supplied the fine-dining Riverside Restaurant and St James Restaurant, the latter restaurant new for 2017, supporting the event caterers with a range of crockery, cutlery and glassware.
Cheltenham Festival 2017
Arena Group once again supplied event infrastructure to the world-famous Cheltenham Festival, which attracted around 250,000 visitors, March 14-17, 2017.
The Jockey Club’s world-renowned race meeting saw five Arena UK and Europe companies work in tandem to deliver over 20,000 sqm of VIP level facilities overlooking the racecourse, including the World’s longest temporary triple deck structure.
Arena Group UK & Europe CEO Grahame Muir states:
“In the first year of our new three year multi-venue Jockey Club contract, we were keener than ever to deliver an even higher level of finish than last year. I am incredibly proud of what our teams delivered and it was pleasing to see all divisions having a part of play.
“Significant investment was made into even more of our cantilevered balconies, providing unencumbered views and increasing valuable hospitality floor space. Additionally a new staircase design was introduced.”
Arena RIM Scaffolding were first on site, with project coordinator Darren Simpson bringing their event engineering expertise to install the all important sub-structures, which involved more than 400 tonnes of scaffolding material, and create level, solid foundations across the undulating course for the Structures team to build on.
Arena Structures Ben Sly project managed the 13 week installation of 20,000sqm of temporary event environments. Over 190 linear metres of triple decked private suites and exclusive restaurants are provided for Jockeyclub clients and guests.
The structures incorporated kitchen, bathroom and rear access facilities on all levels, along with Tote betting booths, phone charge points and cash machines.
Arena’s bespoke Moet & Chandon Champagne covered bar and mezzanine was a constantly popular facility throughout the Festival.
Spaceworks provided 5,000 dining chairs and 500 banqueting tables, set up throughout Arena’s facility. In addition, Well Dressed Tables provided 10,000 covers including crockery, cutlery and glassware across all hospitality areas on the site.
Arena Seating provided its award winning Clearview seating product along with terracing within the Guinness stand, providing fantastic views across the finishing line.
A Timeless Classic
Well Dressed Tables have recently invested in a timeless classic, Old English EPSS Cutlery by Arthur Price of England, the most desirable cutlery brand in the UK.
The Old English range of cutlery is from Arthur Price’s premium collection. Traditional skills are used alongside new technology to ensure manufacturing excellence. Each piece is electroplated with pure silver to a high specification giving a beautiful radiance. Each piece is very carefully crafted from Electric Plated Stainless Steel at Arthur Price’s factory in Sheffield. It’s quality and design are second to none.
The Old English Cutlery is a timeless classic that oozes elegance and tradition but will never look out of place. Old English is now in stock and available to hire by clicking here.
Arena Group Takes Centre Stage at The Brit Awards
Arena Group provided extensive temporary structures, tableware and furniture for this year’s star-studded BRIT Awards in association with MasterCard, which took place at London’s O2 on the 24th February.
The 2016 ceremony marked the 36th edition of The BRIT Awards, one of the music industry’s most prestigious events, and witnessed performances from Adele, Coldplay, James Bay and Jess Glynne. Arena Structures was called upon to supply a variety of temporary structures including the dining structure which is then transformed into the after party area , catering area and production offices. Arena Structures installed two 5m x 15m tents and one 3m x 15m tent to create a horseshoe shaped kitchen and catering area, which was positioned outside of the O2 dome.
Two 10m x 20m tents were also supplied by Arena Structures to create the main production office and the BRITS TV office, which included an Ogle Hog live video editing suite. The VIP and sponsors dining/afterparty area was created using a 40m x 35m TFS, which was constructed inside the O2 dome, to create a venue within a venue.
Arena Group’s Spaceworks and Well Dressed Tables division supplied a total of 2,600 covers of crockery, cutlery, glassware and furniture within the main arena and the VIP marquee.
Dan Bluff Arena Structures project manager, commented: “We work with the O2 on a number of different events, including the ATP World Tour, which means we’re familiar with the space available and the working practices within the venue. This allowed us to successfully construct a number of temporary structures within the venue, including a temporary VIP
party area, which enabled organisers to host pre and post celebrations on-site. We’re delighted to be able to build on our longstanding relationship with The BRITS and to once again be involved with this brilliant event.”
Spaceworks and Well Dressed Tables managing director, Christopher Piggott, commented: “The BRITS is always such a spectacular show to be part of and we’re proud to have once again been involved. We supplied a range of our tableware and furniture to ensure the main arena and VIP marquee were dressed seamlessly to reflect the glamour and the elegance of this event.”
Fine dining at the iconic Olympic Velodrome
Spaceworks and Well Dressed Tables supported caterers The Recipe, at the first major event in the Velodrome since the London Olympic Games, March 2014.
The finalé of Britain’s top track cycling competition ‘The Revolution Series’ opened the Lee Valley VeloPark, as 15,000 cycling fans enjoyed a thrilling weekend of races, featuring a number of Team GB medal winners from London 2012.
Event organisers Face Partnership entrusted Ed Watts, event manager at the The Recipe, to create a premium hospitality experience for sponsors and their guests. Led by project manager Jason Preston, the Spaceworks and Well Dressed Tables team supplied an extensive range of furniture and high quality cutlery, crockery and glassware for the kitchen, meeting rooms, VIP spectator areas and centre of the track.
The centre of the track was creatively adapted into a versatile event space, hosting a media centre during the race, before being transformed into a post-race dinner party for sponsors and their guests. A premium experience was required for the unique dining location and this was created with black padded seats, stylish Lubiana plates, contemporary Messina cutlery and elegant Cuvee glassware.
Project manager Jason Preston said: “A dedicated team was deployed to the site for the duration of the event across the weekend, to ensure smooth installation, reconfiguration of the event spaces, replacement of fresh catering equipment for dinner on Friday and Saturday evenings and de-rig.
“It’s not every day we create fine dining experiences inside world class sporting venues like this, but it was a spectacular setting for the event. Access to the venue was extremely restricted because the road leading into the venue wasn’t finished. We positioned the delivery vehicles on the outdoor cycling track and our team carried the equipment over 200metres into the building. In line with our environmental policy we utilised drip trays under our delivery vehicles in order to protect the surface of the track”.
*All images courtesy of Luke Webber.