Inception Group Enters the World of Competitive Socialising

Inception Group, the company behind London hospitality venues including Mr Fogg’s, Cahoots and Bunga 90, is planning to open a new gaming concept this spring. Mr Fogg’s Games Parlour will be based in the lower ground floor of the existing Mr Fogg’s City Tavern in Broadgate Circle, near Liverpool Street, occupying part of the venue’s 5,000-square-foot space. The area will contain six gaming booths, each seating up to eight players, built in keeping with the Mr Fogg’s aesthetic.

Guests can book a booth for 80-minute sessions in which they play six different games. The games are reworked versions of darts, mini golf, parlour quoits, beer pong, shuffle puck and bagatelle, each given a Victorian theme in line with the Mr Fogg’s brand.

A bar will be available serving the standard Mr Fogg’s menu of draught beers, punches, cocktails and bar snacks.

The format is best described as an Olympic-style pentathlon but for pub games. It will be of little benefit being a specialist at just one game. Instead, it will be the all-rounders and those who are reasonably good at everything who will be crowned Top Fogg.

Commenting on the launch, Inception Group co-founder Charlie Gilkes said: “For hundreds of years, people have been playing games in public houses across the UK, so it feels only fitting that we’ve found a way to revive traditional Victorian parlour games and combine them with more modern favourites in order to create a fitting selection of 21st-century pub games.

“We’ve seen the rise in popularity of competitive socialising concepts over recent years and knew that, if we entered the space, we would want to create something distinctly different from what’s already out there. We’ve spent nearly 24 months testing our unique gaming concept and we’re incredibly excited to be finally revealing it to our Mr Fogg’s customers. True to our Victorian backstory, the experience is deliberately analogue rather than digital. There’s something wonderfully simplistic about marking your own score on a chalkboard”.