Despite living in London for almost 3 years my thirst for exploring all the wonderful and quirky things that this city has to offer hasn’t faded one bit.
I decided to start the year with a bang and headed to the pop up Alcotraz bar located in an unsuspecting building on Brick Lane with my brother. I’d read a few reviews about it being this incredible immersive experience based on America’s most infamous prison and thought I had to try it!
Anyone attending is asked to bring a bottle of their favourite spirit and form an orderly queue outside the venue when you arrive. We were greeted by a prison guard who asked us how journey to the prison was and we were immediately thrust into the immersive world of the Alcotraz prison bar. Inside we were ordered to put on orange scrubs on over our clothes and march into the prison where we were each allocated our own pokey cell complete with a thin mattress and black stool.
The cast comprised of a two prison guards, two inmates/bartenders and a priest who all hailed from a southern town in the US. The priest would regularly check everyone’s cell, rough it up for those he didn’t like and order inmates to tidy up their appearance, whilst the inmates would sneak your bottle of contraband up their jumpsuits and return shortly after with delicious cocktails.
The guards didn’t take well to pictures or videos being made of them(I took many) and even ordered me down to ‘ the hole’ to be punished. After marching me down some windy stairs and locking the door, the guards then pulled out a hip flask and some playing cards and we infact played rounds of 21 with the winner taking shots!
The priest sat down with my brother and asked him to recite a verse from the bible which he did so well (choosing to adopt a Deep South accent) that he was asked to recite it infront of the group. Thankfully he’d had a few cocktails by this point and had built up some Dutch courage to rise to the challenge.
The entire experience was incredible and one I would definitely recommend. I’ve visited several immersive bar/theatre experiences and this is by far one of the best. The attention to detail both in the prison, the guards costumes and their characters is impeccable, the atmosphere is electric, everyone immediately slips into their role of prisoner and each cocktail (we had about 4 each) tasted amazing!
If you’re looking to try something a bit different to your usual bar experience then head over to https://www.alcotraz.co.uk/ for more details and tickets.
To my lovely readers, have you ever been to the Alcotraz bar in London? If not, what is your favourite immersive experience?
Giulia x
I did wonder what happened when people were taken down to “the hole”!
Author
Haha now you know 🙂
This sounds like such a cool experience, I have never heard of this bar before so I will certainly have to check it out X
Author
Do it Mia! Let me know what you think when you do 🙂 x
I have been meaning to go here and I’ll definitely go soon, thanks! I visited Dans Le Noir a while ago and although it was good experience overall, I didn’t anticipate how truly dark it would be. I also had forgotten that I had a fear of going blind, which was a good thing as if I had thought it through I never would have gone. I almost bottled…Certainly worth a visit once!
Author
I’ve also been to dans le noir and written a review on it! I totally agree about how dark it is, I feel like we never experience darkness like it! Let me know what you think of Alcotraz if you go 🙂 x