OXBO is truly a ‘one off’. Located within the Hilton Bankside and with its own street entrance, the restaurant is popular for its local and eclectic ingredients, its grills and its bottomless brunches. As part of our brief to design the hotel, twenty2 degrees was charged with creating a restaurant that was aligned with the cuisine, reflected the gritty urban legacy of the location and chimed with the design of the hotel guest areas.
As the only restaurant in the hotel, OXBO needed to work in its entirety at breakfast but also as individual parts during different times of day. Glazed screens, carefully considered seating groups and different flooring treatments help achieve this flexibility while a large open kitchen provides theatre for the entire space.
A ghost wall, a reference to the neighbourhood’s original Rose Brand Fine Tea mural, is an artistic reminder of the district’s historic importance as a trade hub, and, everywhere, the restaurant is lavishly accessorised, from a menagerie of extraordinary mounted animal heads crafted from papier mâché to vintage finds discovered in nearby markets.
