Spazio Leone Finds a Permanent Home in London
Founded by Gennaro Leone, the purveyor of vintage design unveils a new gallery in a former Victorian textile factory that pairs rarities from cult Italian figures with emerging talents
During the pandemic, as quarantine prompted a broad reconsideration of domestic life, Gennaro Leone returned to his hometown of Naples. After a decade working in London’s avant-garde performance venues and as a senior curator for music broadcaster Boiler Room, he felt compelled to reconnect with the unconventional design he recalls from his childhood. He would soon rediscover that antiques inextricably defined Neapolitan life—an encounter that sparked an unrelenting desire to begin anew within the design world. “All I knew was that there was a certain beauty I wanted to pursue, though I wasn’t entirely sure what form it would take,” Leone tells Galerie. A chance meeting with a furniture dealer supplying rentals for the film industry soon followed, opening a new horizon after they embarked on buying trips and spent time in the Italian countryside immersed in well-worn issues of Gio Ponti’s Domus magazine.
Soon after, Leone returned to London and launched his own space, Spazio Leone, as a source for eccentric vintage furniture within a shared boutique in Stoke Newington. In 2022, the venture moved into its own quarters beneath the railway arches of Hackney Downs, where the gallery gained a following within the city’s interiors community for its wealth of off-the-beaten-path pieces, which ran the gamut from midcentury classics and idiosyncratic works by cult Italian figures to sculptural work from emerging talents Grace Atkinson and Mariana Chkonia. Leone further embedded himself within the local creative fabric by opening Dalla, an Italian restaurant he founded with his chef brother, Gianmarco, with interiors by Sicilian designer Oscar Piccolo. The setting echoed the gallery’s sensibility, where restored seating by Robert Mallet-Stevens and Alvar Aalto, for example, shared space with a rare Stilnovo chandelier by Bruno Gatta.
A turning point for the gallery came in 2025, when Leone and Piccolo devoted an exhibition to Riccardo Dalisi, the visionary Neapolitan architect and designer whose work Leone had known since childhood. “Dalisi is everywhere in Naples—he’s part of the city’s cultural fabric,” Leone says, describing encounters with his work embedded in walls and architectural details. Despite earning the Compasso d’Oro twice and influencing fellow radicals Alessandro Mendini and Ettore Sottsass, Dalisi never quite got his due. “His work represents Naples in its spontaneity, its poetry, and its raw inventiveness,” Leone says. “Bringing his work to London felt almost like a responsibility.” The show traced Dalisi’s boundless imagination through furniture and objects, anchored by the starry copper coffee pot he designed for Alessi in the 1970s and a broader selection defined by a whimsical, line-drawn sensibility.
As his curatorial ambitions expanded, Leone began to crave permanent environs that could fully support the future he envisioned for Spazio Leone. He stepped back to consider what sort of gallery setting would foster sustained growth while showcasing the breadth of his vision. When he toured a former Victorian textiles factory in Hackney, clarity arrived quickly. “I’ve always admired the lofts in Tribeca, New York, and somehow this former factory carried a similar spirit—open, raw, and full of character,” he says of the ground-floor space, where expansive windows lend the interiors a distinctly domestic ease. The gallery, which officially opened this week, now offers Leone the latitude to fully realize what Spazio Leone can become.
The space, open to the public on Saturdays and by appointment during the week, hosts a rotating presentation of art and collectible design, pairing works by cult Italian figures such as Angelo Mangiarotti, Carlo Nason, Paolo Buffa, and Giuseppe Pagano with narrative-driven pieces by emerging talents. “For the first time, we have the opportunity to curate not just exhibitions, but an entire environment—almost like a home,” Leone says. “The different nooks, varied areas, and shifts in energy give us the freedom to create something layered and intimate. It allows us to make the gallery feel cozy and inviting, both for us and for our clients.”
That sensibility surfaces most clearly in Leone’s instinctive approach to pairing objects across eras and traditions. “We don’t follow a strict structure or formula,” he describes. “Instead, we begin by drawing and sketching ideas, trying to understand how things might come together. The dialogue between historic figures and emerging talents develops organically, depending on what feels urgent and meaningful at a given moment, or sometimes simply through meeting someone whose work I completely fall in love with.”
The gallery floor offers vivid examples. A blue rug by Nordic Knots grounds an Art Nouveau–inspired table and chairs by Hans Günther Reinstein, whose ribbed construction carries a Secessionist elegance, while nearby a pine Fratina chair by Mario Ceroli introduces a playful note through its swooping high back. Elsewhere, an abstract wool tapestry by Mariana Chkonia hangs above an edition of the Cornaro sofa by Carlo Scarpa, its generous profile lending the vignette lived-in charm. Additional highlights include a Model 31 chair by Alvar Aalto, an S.C.A.L. daybed by Jean Prouvé, a Jumbo coffee table by Gae Aulenti, and an edition of the same Robert Mallet-Stevens chair that appears at Dalla, tying the gallery back to Leone’s wider creative universe.
That realm is set to expand even further. Spazio Leone plans to extend its activities to include restoration, upholstery, and staging, along with design consultancy and commissioning services, each supported by a dedicated team. “They operate independently but also rely on each other,” Leone says. “Together they create a more complete ecosystem that allows Spazio Leone to engage with collectible design in a more considered and cohesive way.” The gallery has also begun planning a slate of focused exhibitions, including a forthcoming retrospective to be unveiled during the London Design Festival in September, which Leone says will connect to the radical spirit that defined Dalisi’s work.
All of this, he notes, stems directly from the possibilities unlocked by the new gallery. “What excites me the most is the chance to go deeper and work in a more considered way,” he muses. “Having a permanent home allows us to slow down, spend more time with artists and designers, and let ideas evolve naturally.”