The man behind some of London’s most iconic bars on culture, interior design and timekeeping
Paying homage to a cultural icon through interior design choices requires serious dedication to the cause. Something that Inception Group founder Charlie Gilkes knows all too well. Along with his business partner Duncan Stirling, Gilkes has made his name launching some of London’s most high-profile themed bars and restaurants. From the 1980s-themed Maggie’s on the King’s Road to the Italian pizzeria Bunga Bunga in Battersea, the brand has become synonymous with using politics and culture as a jumping-off point for new ideas.
Hidden away down a Mayfair backstreet is arguably their most ambitious concept – Mr Fogg’s Residence and Tavern. Gilkes and Stirling spent months getting up at the crack of dawn on Saturday and Sunday mornings to root around antiques markets and scour car boot sales to create the perfect cultural shrine to Britain’s best-known and most eccentric fictional explorer, Phileas Fogg.
Gilkes picks his five favourite pieces from around the bar that take cultural identity to a new level:
1 “The hot air balloon. Often when I go down to Kempton Market I meet a lot of dealers who don’t have what I want, but they can go and find it. And I wanted a hot air balloon. Someone tracked the basket down. It needed six of us to carry it in and we had to remove part of the wall. The ceiling had to be reinforced. Then an artistic director designed the balloon around it.”
2 “The penny farthings above the bar.
One came from Kempton Market and the others came from a guy who dug them up in his garden in Essex and put them on eBay.”
3 “The grandfather clock, again bought on eBay. A family friend who is a clock enthusiast fixed the pendulum for us. We have to wind it once a week and it seems to keep pretty good time. Phileas Fogg was obviously all about being on time. Which is why this place opens at 16:01 rather than 4pm. We make a bit of a thing about it.”
4 “The snow shoes, which are from a car boot sale. I think I paid £20 for them. But they are so perfect hidden away around the corner in the bar.”
5 “These elephant feet are not real. I had them shipped over from the States and they almost got confiscated by customs. Realistic, yes. Which is good. But not real.”
