Belowzero Ice Bar - Mayfair

Family Feel - 1/5

Girls Night - 4/5

Romance - 4/5

Tucked away in a quaint little off-street of Mayfair, is the hidden-away Arctic cove known as the Belowzero Ice Bar. Here you can enjoy a beverage straight out of an ice-carved glass in -5 conditions. Although it's exterior resembles that of an Under 18's Fruity Foam Party, through the small entrance one shall be surprised to find a rather elegant space, designed in cleverly contrasting warm colours. This area is kept at the conventional room temperature of 20 degrees Celsius, where you can enjoy drinks of a standard chillness at the bar and food in the open planned restaurant. Adjacent to this, is the freezer room which accommodates the Ice Bar, featuring skillful sculptures inside the walls and life-size props decorating the space, all of course, made from nothing but ice. The theme changes each year, in an effort to encourage Londoners and Tourists to revisit. The current theme of "London Land" closes on May 11th 2019 with 7 days to remodel the glorified igloo before it's reopening on the 18th.

London Land until May 11th 2019

This establishment is certified in the revolutionised modern-day trend of transforming the simple activity of going for drink into an immersive all-singing, all-dancing experience. I strongly suspect in the coming years, any bar that doesn't display a extensively themed interior, featuring stimulating entertainment and props, with multiple photo opportunities, serving drinks that at least sparkle, bubble or erupt, will fall short of any millennial customers. The only less attractive detail behind these experiential bars, is having to pay an entry fee and for a short designated time slot too. Which would of course never be the case when visiting the local Weatherspoons. Although, in this case, I was not majorly inconvenienced by the 'short' element of this stay, as the cold really does seep through to your bones after about half-an-hour. This £21 cost (per person) does also include a pre-mixed, highly artificial, cocktail drink - and in reflection I am very pleased I purchased these tickets on a Black Friday 50% off deal!

You will be asked to arrive 15-20 minutes before your ticketed time, and lucky for my boyfriend and I, it was not raining as we had to wait the entirety of that time at the back of the queue which meant we didn't even make it through the front door. Standing here is greatly entertaining as the prior session comes to an end leading groups of people to spill out in drips and drabs. When they reach the outside every single one will make a comment about how warm it feels. Every. Single. One. All of a sudden, the queue dislodged, and within a matter of 60 seconds we staggered through the narrow and short walk-way, had a large fur-hooded cloak thrown over our heads with such ease and precision that one could only assume this was by a professional cloak-thrower, and herded into the room made of ice. My first thought was of size! I immediately realised the marketing photos had been taken with a extremely wide angled lens.

Though the space was small, the glacier artwork was displayed in abundance. We shuffled around the icy cove, to thumping (but not invasive) pop music, taking snaps of all the walls, structures and sculptures. The resourcefully positioned photo opportunities are cleverly designed to entice those of us that have a slightly unhealthy relationship with social media to provide a wonderfully free form of marketing (which, of course, we cannot resist).

It's undeniably an experience one should peruse, at least once! An innovative idea, executed rather well, though clearly with the aim of making as much profit as possible, which should really be accepted as the sole purpose of most London venues in this age. In conclusion, I would highly recommend an alternative to the typical pub experience, and the Belowzero Ice Bar is an excellent place to start.

A few tips for this experience:

- Dress those legs appropriately (the bear-like cloaks only conceal bodily heat to the knees).

- If you feel like it's a bit of a squeeze, it clears out massively as the fragile souls can't manage more than half an hour.

- Eat before to start you off on a warm fuelled foot, I couldn't imagine walking into that ice box on an empty stomach!

(Visited by The Lady Critique 23rd February - 21:30)