Berry Brothers and Rudd wanted a visitors' centre where they could market their leading whisky to invited guests. The centre is designed in two parts.
The first part is a detailed reconstruction of their 17th century shop in St. James’s Street in London. It is supported by a series of soundtracks spoken by some of the characters who frequented or worked in the shop. These range from Beau Brummell who came regularly to be weighed on the scales (the height of fashion at the time), to James McBay, a Scottish artist friend of the owners, who named the Cutty Sark brand and designed the distinctive label over lunch in the parlour at the back of the shop, to Captain James McCoy an American bootlegger (the Real McCoy) who supplied Cutty Sark Whisky during the days of prohibition.
The second part of the centre is a modern set, where two multi-projector programmes show how whisky is distilled and in how many countries Cutty Sark is sold. At the end of the programme a ten foot high bottle is revealed and a curtain opens onto a whisky blending and tasting area where the guests are invited to try their hand at creating a better blend than Cutty Sark Whisky, one of the world's leading brands.
Roy Reed produced all of the soundtracks, photographed and produced the AV programmes and was responsible for the technical design of the centre. He was a member of the project design team.