OLIVO GUILDFORD

Olivo in Quarry Street is first Olivo to be opened in November 1997 by the management team of Nicky and Fulvio Bertani.

The Kitchen installation and the front of house decoration took approximately 12 weeks to complete with a lot of work being controlled by Guildford borough council conservation department.

The building is believed to be a late Elizabethan timber-framed house, dating back to the early 1660s according to Mr. Alexander of the Guildford Museum.

The building is particularly interesting for its internal features including timber beams and intricate paintings on the woodwork, as well as the original fire-place (now the bar) and the old sewage canal which is still visible in the cellar.

The earliest written record of the building dates from 1745 when the building was a pub known as 'The Kitt'. During the next forty years the pub's name changed to 'The sheep Shearers', 'The King's Head' and 'The Sun'.

In the early 19th Century a change of use saw it become a butcher's shop until 1859 when it was acquired as the first public dispensary until 1866 when the Royal Surrey County Hospital was opened.

Once again 53 Quarry Street becomes a public house and then an antique furniture shop.

In 1910 major alteraions were carried out and the original courtyard was filled in by a single storey shop front. At the time the building was also divided into two separate shops.

For fifty years the corner shop was occupied by Piper's tobacconists, but in 1968 both premises were almalgamated and Bridleways, a local saddlery firm began trading from the building.

Another chapter in this building's history begins in September 1987 when local architects, Gerry Lytle Associates commence business from 53/53a Quarry Street.

In Spring 1997, OLIVO Restaurants Ltd, aquired the lease from Gerry Lytle Associates and on the 19th of November of the same year Olivo Guildford began trading.

The current Restaurant Manager, who took over from Nicky and Fulvio, is Mr. Paolo Ditale, whose passion for food, service and details, has created a superb style of service accompanied by an amazing menu.

Translation of the script on the ground floor beam,

street side nearest window:

...eschew lewd wyckedness ~

and joyfully embrace the (~) of chastity ~

(~) not, lye (?) not, nor speake that is filthy ~

detest from the hearte women uglie and wanton ~

for many by these (?) means (??), are (~) to (~)