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Panzer's Delicatessen

Panzer's

London, UK

Panzer’s Delicatessen has operated in St John’s Wood since 1944 and has occupied its current site since 1952. Known for its wide-ranging selection of international food and house-made goods, the store is both a local fixture and a destination for specialist products. In 2018, Holland Harvey delivered a full refurbishment of the site. In 2021, we were invited to return and carry out a refresh.

Panzer’s has been recognised by the FT's How to Spend It as one of the "50 greatest food stores in the world", and by The Times as one of the "UK’s 25 best delis".

Entrance to Panzer's © Panzer's

Founded by an Austrian émigré, the original interior was influenced by early 20th-century Austrian design, particularly the work of Adolf Loos. Loos’ interiors were characterised by flat planes of rich materials such as marble, stone and timber, with little ornamentation and a focus on craftsmanship. This approach is echoed in the current design, which uses material expression and detail as the primary means of visual interest.

Panzer’s continues to source goods from over 80 countries, with a product range that includes specialist items from small Italian producers, citrus farms in southern Spain, Russian ice creams, and Manuka honey from New Zealand. The interior needed to support and reflect this global, curated offer.

Product shelving © Panzer's

The updated design retains key features from the 2018 refurbishment and introduces a small number of new interventions. The most prominent of these is a new coffee bar, clad in green marble, located behind a fully retractable guillotine-style façade—one of the only examples of its kind in London. The opening allows the shopfront to operate as an extension of the interior.

A new custom terrazzo was developed with Diespeker, combining pink (a reference to Panzer’s smoked salmon) and green (drawn from the shop’s original 1944 branding). The material was used selectively across key touchpoints, including the tills and deli counter, where it was hand-polished and inset with brass branding details.

Outside, the seating area was modestly expanded and shaded with larger awnings to support increased footfall and visibility.

The project is located in a conservation area in Westminster and required consultation with local heritage groups. All works were phased to allow the store to remain fully operational throughout the programme.

The refresh has been well received by the local community, and noted in the national press. Panzer’s continues to be recognised for both its product offer and customer experience, maintaining a consistent identity over many decades.

Panzer's Delicatessen

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