Inside Dive: The Velvet-Clad Basement Bar Redefining Marylebone Nightlife
Designed by Paris studio Golem for DJ owner Antoine Le Dirat-Giacometti, Dive is a subterranean listening bar built around touch, sound and the slow wear of a good night out.
London has no shortage of basement bars chasing a moody, speakeasy aesthetic, but few commit to the idea as thoroughly as Dive. Tucked beneath Blandford Street in Marylebone, on a site that was once a coal store and, more recently, home to the bar Purl, Dive has opened as a two level cocktail bar and listening room designed almost entirely around the idea that a great interior should show its use rather than resist it.
Photography, Mathilde Hiley.
A concrete block in a velvet glove
The interiors are the work of Ariel André, founder of Paris based studio Golem, who took on a raw, damaged basement and turned its history into the brief. Golem has described the design approach as a concrete block in a velvet glove, an idea that plays out literally across the space, with raw structural elements left exposed beneath swathes of soft red velvet, glossy lacquered surfaces and convex mirrors that catch and bend movement around the room.
Central to the concept is the idea that the bar is designed to age in public. Golem has explained that the space is not intended to look finished on opening night, since the velvet walls and floors are built to hold the imprint of the guests who use them, while the glossier surfaces are expected to pick up scratches and wear over time rather than be protected from it.
Two rooms, two moods
Dive is split across two distinct zones. Near the entrance, a brighter, more sculptural bar area sits beneath warm, buttery lighting, its curved counter and reflective finishes designed to flatter rather than expose. A dark corridor then leads down into a lower, more intimate lounge, arranged around a series of structural arches that have been fitted with built in benches and loose, moveable cushions, allowing the seating to be reconfigured through the night. One arch, known internally as the fun room, is carpeted floor to ceiling and built for anything from quiet conversation to dancing.
Bespoke quart de lune tables, designed specifically for the project, can be used singly by couples or pushed together to seat larger groups, while a one way mirror conceals the bar's non gendered bathroom from the rest of the lounge without cutting guests off from the room entirely.
Built around music
Dive's owner, Antoine Le Dirat-Giacometti, is a French DJ whose two decades of collecting and playing records shape the bar as much as its interiors do. Wallpaper has described him as someone who provides mood, rhythm and tone, and that sensibility runs through the build itself. Tracks were assigned to specific parts of the space alongside the architectural plans, and a height adjustable DJ booth sits beside custom shelving built to hold Le Dirat-Giacometti's own vinyl collection, allowing the lounge to double as a genuine listening room rather than a bar with a playlist.
What to order
The cocktail list leans into the same tension between polish and rawness that defines the interiors. The signature 10:58 reworks the Old Fashioned and takes its name from the running time of Prince's Purple Music, while the Dive Hydrator, a non alcoholic coconut water serve originally developed for marathon runners, gives the menu a considered non drinking option rather than an afterthought. Further down the list, drinks such as The Soba and Le Peach continue the theme of small, specific twists on familiar formats rather than novelty for its own sake.
The Experience
Dive arrives at a moment when London's basement bar scene risks becoming a genre unto itself. What sets it apart is the discipline behind the concept, a space designed to be shaped by its guests rather than protected from them, backed by a music programme built with the same rigour as the interiors. Worth booking ahead, and worth going twice, since the room is designed to look different each time.
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