The project that shaped me: Run for the Hills
Co-founder Anna Burles and Christopher Trotman reflect on the project that introduced the studio to the world of hospitality.
Run for the hills: Christopher Trotman and Anna Burles
London-based studio Run For The Hills was founded with the creative merging of the established studio practices of interior designer Anna Burles and graphic designer Christopher Trotman – forming a multi-disciplinary design house, specialising in interiors and branding for professional and private clients including the hospitality sector, high profile individuals, property developers, hospitality investors and restaurant and bar operators.
Here, the duo reflects on the formative project that introduced the studio to the world of hospitality design, as part of our regular The Project That Shaped Me series.
The project: Kricket, Soho
The brainchild of chef Will Bowlby and front of house Rik Campbell, Kricket is a Soho restaurant specialising in modern Indian small plates. Their first spot was squeezed into a shipping container within Brixton Pop – eventually moving to their first bricks and mortar restaurant on Denman Street in Soho in 2017.
Run for the Hills was appointed to design the new space, with space for 70 diners across two floors. The design features a crackle-glazed lavastone topped bar, with molten bronze ‘grout’ in the original brickwork and rough plaster dusted with gold flakes.
The why
Kricket was a really important project for Run For The Hills, as we were trying to break into hospitality – specifically London’s thriving casual dining scene. Having made a name for ourselves designing creative workspaces (for the likes of Audible, and media and advertising companies such as BMB and Goodstuff) and as massive foodies we really wanted to be designing restaurants.”
Kricket soho, main bar
The challenge
The main challenge was that we hadn’t designed a restaurant before and we were pitching against a few more established design studios who specialised in hospitality. So, we really went to town on our pitch. We created a 40-page presenter of our vision for Kricket’s Soho venue and laser cut Kricket’s ‘K’ logo on the chapter slides. We hand delivered it to Rik and Will (Kricket’s founders) in Brixton in an elaborate box filled with Indian spices. As the underdog we had to jump through a few hoops, multiple meetings with the investors a few costing revisions – but eventually we got the gig.
The project build was super quick, which created lots of challenges given the classic narrowness of the Soho venue – with multiple contractors trying to do their work in and around each other. Our specialist decorator, applying a moody, inky cloudy paint effect to the ceiling, ended up working lying down on a suspended platform close to the ceiling – as there was simply not room for ladders moving around in the space below. Various items of furniture threatened to arrive late, including our hero ‘K’ engraved swivel bar counter stools. Lots of “please don’t let us down” phone calls and hustling saved the day and doors opened with everything looking fantastic.
kricket soho, dining
The result
The restaurant launched just before Christmas and was immediately mobbed by walk-in queues of up to three hours. Pre-marketing had secured thousands of sign-ups and even Kricket’s investor couldn’t get a table on his first trip! The restaurant received rave reviews from the press and secured a Michelin BIB Gourmand within its first year. And, as the designers, we got lots of PR off the back of it – putting us firmly on the hospitality design map. It was one of the first restaurants in London to embrace the rough and ready look, with unfinished plastered brick walls, and we added molten bronze into the cracks of existing brickwork and inky washes to ceilings. Gold was flaked into roughened plasterwork near the glow of wall lights, to create a stylish design we knew would age well. This first venue set a few things that became part of Kricket’s DNA – the fish scale tiles, bar stools and the indestructible, crackle-glazed lavastone countertop.
We started getting more restaurant and bar work off the back of it, with other restaurateurs visiting and finding out who designed it. When we design workspaces and residential projects, it’s not often we get a referral from someone visiting– but designing restaurants and bars is like having your portfolio case studies all across London (and beyond) for anyone to visit.
We went on to have a great working relationship with the Kricket team, designing their second and third locations (Brixton and White City), their website and even chef Will Bowlby’s cookbook. Even now we get the odd referral from someone visiting Kricket Soho. We visited it recently and it still looks fabulous – the lavastone counter is immaculate and looks brand new. Everything else has aged so gracefully – it is as good as it ever was.
