Interior Eye

Epic Proportions of Gilgamesh

Epic Proportions of Gilgamesh

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Camden, the time-warped scruff of a London enclave wherepunk and Goth revivalism never wane amongst the warren ofmarket stalls, tattoo parlours and cheap food stalls, now hasa hulking great alien standing tall at its very heart. Dissolute,alternative adolescents, picking at earrings that might justexpress their idea of nonconformity, are as open-mouthed asif they had seen a Bulgari Hotel Spa in the middle of theGreen Field at Glastonbury. The alien is Gilgamesh, an ultra-designed bar and restaurant, reported to cost anywherebetween £12 million and £25 million, which is dragging thestyle cognoscenti out of the West End and single-handedlythreatening to change the whole aura of Camden.

Every weekend, hundreds of thousands of people come toCamden to graze at the market stalls, but although thereare a handful of half-decent bars and clubs, when the stallsshut up shop in the early evening the area becomes a litter-

strewn ghost town. The mysterious owners and backers ofGilgamesh decided that the only way to force people to lookat Camden as a stylish, night-time destination was todesign on an epic scale, literally. The interior of the 2,500-square-metre (26,910-square-foot) venture, set within atriangular, mostly glazed building that stands above thelow-level Stables Market area, is inspired by the palace inthe Epic of Gilgamesh, which describes the adventures of theBabylonian king who battles men, gods and monsters onhis journey towards enlightenment. The design isabsolutely narrative, in the simplest definition of the wordand, taking its cue from the shift in successful bar andrestaurant design in recent years, it is consciouslyexperiential and leans towards maximalism: like it or not,no one can leave Gilgamesh without having had a verystrong sense of a ‘design experience’.

Howard Watson encounters Gilgamesh, an anonymously designed north London bar. Its'jaw-dropping ostentation' takes the unlikely form of extensive Indian relief sculptures thatdepict Babylonian tales at an epic scale.

Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh Design Team, Camden, London, 2006The chairs in the restaurant are hand carved, featuring the head of Gilgamesh and his arms holding a sword handle.The curved roof is fully retractable.

The 50-metre (164-foot) bar counter divides the restaurant from the bar lounge and sets out the design’s ostentatious,narrative intentions. Hand-carved friezes, above and below, tell the story of the Epic of Gilgamesh, while the countertop also reveals the tale through lapis lazuli tiles. Above, heating is provided by a NASA-developed radiant system,which heats the body rather than the air.

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The design itself tells the story of Gilgamesh through aseries of intricately detailed friezes. The 50-metre (164-foot) U-shaped bar counter, which divides the main bar lounge fromthe restaurant, tells the story three times. Gilgamesh and theepic’s other principal characters move from scene to scene inthe form of metre-high figures picked out in bronzed reliefand LED lighting against the wooden counter front. Thecounter top also tells the tale in exquisitely detailed lapislazuli tiles, which makes this a likely contender for the mostexpensive bar counter ever seen, while a copper frieze runsabove the length of one side of the bar. The heavy wood of thebar lounge is leavened by a floor-to-ceiling, curved stonefrieze, which has a horizontal slit that reveals the servicekitchen. Another copper frieze runs above the design’s mostmonumental feature: two 4-metre (13-foot) high, sphinx-likestatues bearing the head of Gilgamesh that stand either sideof the carved wooden DJ booth.

The surprises of Gilgamesh, beyond the jaw-droppingostentation of the storytelling, are the level of detail that hasgone into the design and the consideration of the space. Thehuge, single floor is broken up into four distinct areas: chill

Above: It could be Vegas, it could be Disney, but Gilgamesh is saved by anexuberant attention to detail that underpins its show of historical opulence.The specially commissioned rams’ heads feature detailing in lapis lazuli.Left: No corner is left unadorned – even the DJ booth is hand carved to formpart of the story. It stands between two 3-metre (10-foot) high statuesbearing the head of Gilgamesh. The designers were inspired by artworks andartefacts in the British Museum.

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bar, lounge bar, restaurant and VIP lounge and, within thespaces, slight variations in level and furnishings resistmonotony and repetition. The positioning of the fixtures andthe carved furnishings also help divide the space, offering asense of intimacy. The owners claim that the carvings are thework of 10,000 North Indian craftsmen. Much aboutGilgamesh carries a suitable aura of the mysterious andapocryphal – almost every element is described along the linesof ‘the longest in Europe’ or ‘the best in Britain’, while thedesigners remain strictly anonymous.

But when one considers that every single chair is handcarved with a slightly individual design, the exaggerationstops seeming quite so ridiculous. Almost all the furniture isin dark, heavy wood sourced from India and is carved toextend the tale of Gilgamesh. Most notably, the curvedbanquettes in the bars have their own section of the story onthe back, ensuring that there is no dead space in the design.The restaurant chairs, deliberately wide to give the sense ofa throne, have finials in the form of the face of Gilgamesh,while the arms are his extended forearms, holding thehandle of a sword which points downwards to become thechair leg. The hugely expensive carved-stone frieze extendsinto an area no one will ever see, while the service doors andair conditioning are totally disguised within the fretwork.

The fear is that this re-creation of another world could be aDisneyland or Las Vegas experience, where superficiality andcrassness continually weaken the credulousness of the

narrative. Gilgamesh is never going to appeal to everybody,but the detail of its design execution, in a deliberate attemptto offer a uniquely experiential, luxurious space, must beapplauded. Interestingly, though, where the real world cannotbe shut out, it is embraced by the design. Surrounding allthese dark woods and heavy materials are walls of floor-to-ceiling glazing, much of which looks onto the surroundingmarket. However, along the side of the restaurant andBabylon VIP Lounge is a rail track, just a few metres away andat the same height as the diners. Intermittingly, a huge trainwill (almost silently) pass along the length of the exterior –the designers chose to leave the glazing completely naked tomake the most of this surprising, filmic happening.

In terms of media hype, Gilgamesh has succeeded becausethe epic has been matched by the detail, making it more thana one-trick pony. Camden is responding – property developershave heard the Gilgamesh tills ringing and plans are afoot forfurther design-led enterprises. However, the renaissance mayturn out to be a threat to the market culture that givesCamden its particular charm. 4

Howard Watson is a London-based writer and editor. He is the author of TheDesign Mix: Bars, Cocktails & Style, Hotel Revolution: 21st-Century HotelDesign, and Bar Style: Hotels and Members’ Clubs, all published by JohnWiley & Sons.

Text © 2007 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Images © Neil Reading PR, photosSuzanne Mitchell

The Babylon VIP Lounge has its own circular bar counter, again with a lapis lazuli tile counter top, and bronzed friezes. Itssoft furnishings, embroidered with golden thread, suggest even greater opulence than those in the main lounge bar.