History

The building was originally commissioned in 1921 by Wolseley Motors Limited for a car showroom and designed by William Curtis Green,his inspiration was drawn from a recently constructed bank building that he had seen in Boston . The building features Venetian

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

 and Florentine detailing. The interior includes marble pillars, arches and stairways. The company however became bankrupt in 1926.

Acquired by Barclays Bank it re-opened in April 1927 as 160 Piccadily Branch with the original architect William Curtis Green reemployed to create offices and a banking counter as well as designing furniture in Japanese lacquer. The branch closed in 1999 with the opening of a new branch in St James Street.

A major restoration and renovation took place in 2003 and The Wolseley opened as a restaurant and shop in November 2003. Being close to the many hedge fund offices in St James, it has a reputation as a venue for corporate entertainment, being named "Best Restaurant for Business" in “Harden’s London Restaurants 2010”.

Jack Nicholson

The Wolseley Restaurant is referred to in a running Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 joke about Jack Nicholson

Jack Nicholson

John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is renowned for his often dark portrayals of neurotic characters. Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award twelve times, and has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice: for One Flew Over the...

 and celebrity deaths. The meme started after Nicholson was confronted by reporters outside the Wolseley in 2008 and asked to comment on the death of actor Heath Ledger

Heath Ledger

Heath Andrew Ledger was an Australian television and film actor. After performing roles in Australian television and film during the 1990s, Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to develop his film career...

. Ledger had just recently finished filming his role as The Joker in The Dark Knight, a role which Nicholson had portrayed in the 1980s. Nicholson, appeared to learn about Ledger's death earlier that day from the assembled press and said "I warned 'em" which was later misquoted as "I warned him." Subsequently it has become something of an internet meme

Internet meme

The term Internet meme is used to describe a concept that spreads via the Internet. The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although the latter concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information.-Description:...

 to react to the death of a celebrity by posting messages saying that Jack Nicholson warned them.

Ownership

The Wolseley was created by Chris Corbin and Jeremy King, arguably two of the best known restaurateurs in London. The pair were also behind the renewed fame and success of Le Caprice (opened by Mario Gallati in 1947), The Ivy (by Abel Giandellin, c. 1917) and J. Sheekey (Josef Sheekey, 1896). The restaurant is 50% owned by financial conglomerate Dawnay Day

Dawnay Day

Dawnay Day is a privately owned financial services group. Founded in 1928 the group is based in London, employs 1,000 staff and claims to own gross assets of more than $4bn...

.

External links