Kukui - Oxford

Oxford, United Kingdom

Kukui was a modern tiki nightclub in Oxford, England, opened in 2008. Being a nightclub in a college town, its target audience was a young crowd, and was set up for music and dancing rather than lounging and conversing.

To give one example, they invited controversy at their first ever Halloween party in 2008, when an online listing promised “one of the naughtiest nights of the year” with “KY Jelly wrestling — naked” and “fetish snake shows involving a 12ft albino python”.

Capacity was set for 800 persons.

The space was an unusually successful melding of sleek, modern lines with Polynesian Pop. This same combination has been attempted many times before, and usually lands with a thud; in the hands of interior design firm CheekyTiki and graphic designer TikiRacer (responsible for the interior and graphics for Mahiki in London), the result was beautifully proportioned and worked well.

It was divided into six distinct areas, including the private blue-domed Castaway Room, seating 35 and sealed off from the main space by a 4m tropical fish tank. Alternatively, you could book the Californian Room, with a 15m tropical rainforest wall screen.

'Hula Hula Girls' and 'Honolulu Hunks' served the keenly priced cocktails, designed for sharing.

Kukui closed in May 2011.

A second Kukui location opened in Bournemouth in 2010 and then closed 6th February 2012, re-opened as Lola Lo Bournemouth on the 9th February 2012, before closing once more in July 2014 only to be re-opened as a non-tiki themed establishment afterwards.