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Looking for a fun night out in London? A unique cocktail bar? An unforgettable experience? Somewhere to take your date, a group of friends or a best mate for their birthday? Something Instagram-worthy to do? Well, I have an answer to all of the above: The Bletchley!
During my recent stay in London I took my friend Essi out for something I’d been wanting to try for a long time: The Bletchley, a unique, pop-up type cocktail bar in Chelsea. Their website states:
Use WW2 Enigma machines and protocols and Sherlock’s deduction principles to help our mixologists create personalised cocktails for you. The recipes will stay a secret between you and our agents. Forever.
Having already experienced the Breaking Bad themed bar called ABQ London, created by the same company that’s behind the Bletchley, we pretty much knew what to expect. Something well planned and executed and definitely , absolutely photogenic.
But the attention to detail and simply the very underground atmosphere made us gasp out loud. This amazing bunker bar at a secret(ish) location really made us feel like we’d been swallowed by a time machine and spat out somewhere else, sometime during WWII.
But you know, in a good and safe way, since cocktails and fun times only.
Our night at the Bletchley consisted of several secret missions and codes ranging from easy to a little more complicated which we had to break to “earn” ourselves cocktails. And quite magical cocktails at that; each one created and mixed to suit our personal choices during the tasks. Something sweet, something sour, flower petals, complicated embellishments, even smoke and other lovely flavors & scents to enjoy.
The staff at the Bletchley were a fun bunch too! They made sure to give us just enough time to try and figure things out on our own, but always made sure they’d be there to give us some special tips if it seemed we had lost the plot.
Which, I have to admit, we did lose a couple of times ?
Here, just have a look at our confusing notes and maximum effort… THIKTY?!!
At the Bletchley, you also get to wear a WWII style uniform to really get into proper agent mood. It’s funny: no matter how old we life-enjoying people get, dressing up in something unusual always makes us giggle.
Plus obviously one needs to take like 200 selfies while wearing something like this.
The set cocktail experience costs £34.99 pp, which includes one (delicious!) welcome drink + two Cryptic/Mission Cocktails. You’ll also get 1h 45m inside the cocktail bunker. We thought we’d be too tired to stay that long, but ended up staying for full two hours without even noticing we’d overstayed! The place wasn’t booked full that night, so the kind bartenders/officers let us stay for a little bit longer.
Next to our table, we had a happy group of friends solving puzzles and looking confused at times. Turned out they were celebrating their friend’s birthday, which made me wish we had something like this back in Helsinki. It’d be lovely to have such an easy answer for that eternal question when trying to organize something memorable for your pals!
Anyway, that’s the Bletchley in short! I was sort of worrying about giving away too many spoilers, but I’m thinking maybe I can convince you to go if you’re on the fence about it…. JUST DO IT. It’s fun. You’ll love it.
The Bletchley
Address: 459 King’s Road, Chelsea, London
Website / Instagram / Facebook
Wed: 1730-0000
Thu-Sat: 1730-0200
Sun: 1730-0000
For bookings more than 12, please call the bureau at 0203 4881 678.
