All Photos By Gail
On the top floor of Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery in Vauxhall, London, Pharmacy2 is less a café than a fully immersive extension of the artist’s worldview. Drawing directly from Hirst’s long-standing fascination with medicine, the space translates the cool precision of his Medicine Cabinets series into an environment where visitors can sit, sip, and linger inside the artwork itself.
The design leans unapologetically into pharmaceutical imagery. Metallic silver wallpaper is printed with endless arrays of brightly colored pills and capsules, while banquettes and chair backs are similarly embellished, wrapping visitors in a repeating motif of dosage and desire.
At the center, a glass vitrine-topped bar (flanked by pill-shaped barstools) displays a deliberately disordered assortment of medical equipment and PPE, echoing the museum-like presentation of Hirst’s sculptural works.
Even the illuminated front of the bar becomes a glowing grid of pills in saturated reds and blues, blurring the line between functional lighting and conceptual display.
Like the artist’s earlier Pharmacy2 ventures, the café balances clinical cool with pop seduction. It’s a space that invites casual consumption — of food, drink, and imagery — while quietly reinforcing Hirst’s larger themes: our faith in medicine, the aesthetics of science, and the uneasy overlap between healing, branding, and belief.
In true Hirst fashion, what looks playful at first glance reveals a sharper edge the longer you stay. Pharmacy2 is open during exhibit hours only, serving free Coffee, Tea, and Biscuits to all gallery guests.
