In November 1985 the V&A opened the New Restaurant (as it was then known) in the vaulted brick basement of the Henry Cole Wing (which had been built as the School of Naval Architecture in 1871). The furniture was commissioned from Ronald Carter, who in 1971 had been appointed a Royal Designer for Industry for his furniture design. The New Restaurant later gained notoriety as the 'Ace caff with quite a nice museum attached', as promoted in a late-1980s advertisement for the V&A. The furniture entered the catalogue of its Derbyshire-based manufacturer, Peter Miles Furniture Ltd, as the Buxton range, and was specified for other museum cafes including the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

The simple right-angular joinery of this furniture derives from Arts and Crafts traditions. Nothing is superfluous and there is no decoration. The chairs were identical to the stools, with the addition of simple back rails, and the flat stools were just as serviceable as small tables. In addition there were round and square tables and coat stands, all made of the same ash wood. 132 stools were specified for use in the restaurant, at a cost of £59 each. The furniture was particularly durable and remained in service in the New Restaurant until its closure in November 2006.