The new ice-bar pop-up at London Bridge City is a pretty cool affair
FOR those of you who aren’t quite cold enough, London Bridge City – on the south bank of the Thames, between HMS Belfast and City Hall – has just become home to a new ice bar, courtesy of Eis Haus. Styled as an “après-ski” outdoor mini-lodge, it features DJs, live music on Thursdays and Fridays, live ice-carving, heaters and a bar stall serving mulled wine as well as your standard bevvies. The main attraction is pretty neat: for £15 you can enter a sub-zero ice bar, replete with ice sculptures and a Game of Thrones-inspired ice throne, and drink cocktails and shots from tiny ice tumblers.
Eis Haus bar. Photograph: Alexander Mourant
Gloves and a trapper hat, included in the £15 ticket, are recommended for the ice bar itself: your fingers and toes will get pretty chilly pretty quickly. But if your brain has now frozen from our eighth use of the word “ice” so far, it might interest you to know that this pop-up perfectly complements its neighbour, the parade of 68 decidedly non-icy artisan stalls that comprise Christmas By The River. From chocolates and mulled wine to woollen warmers to festive gewgaws, there’s no shortage of choice – and if you walk down the riverside from London Bridge, the Eis Haus is where this wintry but welcoming walk culminates.
Eis Haus bar. Photograph: Alexander Mourant
Feeling hot under the collar but don’t fancy a cold shower? You could try sub-zero speed dating. Feeling creative? Give ice-carving a go. There are also river gondolas if you’d rather take your mulled wine and your other half somewhere quieter. But Eis Haus’s ice bar remains the headline event. Props to Philip Hughes, an ice entrepreneur whose Ice Box company built a popular 30-metre ice bar for the royal premiere of James Bond’s 2002 outing, Die Another Day. His impressive iceworks and sculptures have toured Europe, the Middle East and India.
Last entry to the ice bar is at 9:30pm; you can book here. It’s on until Wednesday 3 January.
by Arjun Sajip