Alcoholic Architecture | A Cocktail Cloud
Welcome to Alcoholic Architecture, an immersive cocktail bar containing a large, walk-in cloud of humidified, breathable booze.
Located in the Victorian basement of what was once a Borough Market banana store and ancient monk monastery, it’s the creation of modern-day Willy Wonkas, Bompas & Parr who – with the assistance of multiple designers, producers, engineers, bartenders, scientists, artists, historians and psychologists – have built a place where alcohol is capable of passively entering your bloodstream through the mucus membranes of both your lungs and, um, your eyeballs.
An innovation which immediately prompts the question, “Why?”
The answer – well, our answer – is that this seems like the sort of weird thing that just may be commonplace in a few decades’ time (alongside flying cars, underwater cities and gooey chocolate cakes that are really good for you), so given that it’s here now – and it only costs £12.50 to go – you have a chance to get ahead of the curve.
Should you wish to partake, you have three things to do:
1) Get tickets, arrive at your selected time slot, enter, and make your way down a set of narrow stairs into a dressing room filled with ornately decorated rain macs. Put one on, or risk smelling like Gin & Tonic forever.
2) Make a beeline for the carved stone bar, select one of the many cocktails inspired by ancient monk elixirs including Buckfast, Chartreuse and Benedictine, take your drink of choice (which will be served in a traditional chalice or goblet, of course), push past a set of butchers curtains, and, finally – liquid cocktail in hand – take a deep breath…
3) Enter The Cloud, fearlessly enveloping yourself in a fluffy white mist of booze which has been cautiously calibrated by the bods in charge to be the equivalent of consuming just one alcoholic drink per hour of exposure.
Because moderation is key….
… while drinking through your eyeballs.
NOTE: Alcoholic Architecture has sadly now closed, but may reappear at a new location soon…
Alcoholic Architecture | 1 Cathedral Street, Borough Market, SE1 9DE
Image credit: Ann Charlott Ommedal
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Carpe Diem!