These are not two titles that I would have ever considered putting together in a blog post, however the fabulous and clever team at Bea’s of Bloomsbury have the perfect secret location in the heart of London to show us a film or two… with cake of course!
The mister took me down to London for a rare whistle stop tour of our capital city to enjoy a few delights along the way, including a pit stop at Fortnum & Mason, a takeaway box of Macarons from Lauderee and lunch in Greenwich, where only Pie and Mash with the local Cock-er-neys would do!
It was a fantastic way to spend my birthday (Well, actually, the day AFTER my birthday) and glad we did it as I had properly gone into misery mode on my actual birthday sulking and feeling old and withered haha. Toys were thrown out of my pram, my bottom lip wobbled all day and it rained to add insult to injury.
So London was the perfect pick me up for a thundery and rainy Tuesday.
The sole reason we were there, thanks to the mister for being so thoughtful and knowing me and my geekery all too well by now (hehe) … he had booked us 2 tickets to join the lovely Bea and her friends at a very secluded location in the form of an old archway under a train line by London Bridge.
Why would we lurk in an old railway tunnel with a bunch of strangers in the name of cake I hear you cry? Well, we ask ourselves the very same reason sometimes, when we find ourselves in these weird and wonderful and downright random locations for a new experience, but it makes life so much more exciting!
Bea’s of Bloomsbury are running Classic Movie Nights throughout the summer and we managed to grab a seat for the very first event, which hosted a showing of “Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark” which is the very first time I have seen this film all the way through, believe it or not!
Now, I would have preferred the Goonies, but we have seen that so many times, we thought we would give this a go for something we would actually enjoying getting into and I LOVED it!
So thank you Bea for introducing me to this classic film!
I would say there were around 40 of us in this tunnel, all curled up under our coats and blankets tucking ourselves into comfortable and very colourful deck chairs, thoughtfully provided by the Bea’s of Bloomsbury team so as not to get cold bottoms on the floor. Those were a welcome addition as we thought we may be fighting for a rug on the floor, thankfully this wasn’t the case. Hehe.
This was my first experience with Bea’s of Bloomsbury and I was gutted not to have been able to sample any of their cakey treats, but this just gives me another excuse to go back to London and have tea at Bea’s.
They did serve lots of gorgeous food though, including sweet or salted popcorn, chicken wings, chili cheese hot dogs with homemade brioche hotdog rolls (My first experience of this hugely filling snack.. I am in love!!!) and funnel cake of which I had never heard of, but got to sample a tiny piece of before deciding I was too stuffed from my hotdog to give a whole plate a go!
Funnel cake is similar to doughnut batter, dropped into oil and fried off, it produces long strands of doughnut type cake batter and is covered in icing sugar. It smelled and tasted amazing and I may well have to try and find this again one day, or even better still, give it a go at making.
There was such a great buzz in this room and everybody chatted and enjoyed the clandestine feel to proceedings.
Bea is unassuming and very modest about her plans for the summer, but I think she is just brilliant. Not only am I fan of her cook book, which I am currently baking my way through, but I am now hooked on underground cakey film nights and I fear I may be back again before the summer is out.
If you love food, drink, random gatherings involving all 3 with a film thrown in for good measure, I highly recommend you get your fingers clicking on the Bea’s of Bloomsbury website and book your tickets for a very modest £5 per person for entry, just take pocket money for drinks and lots of good food. You will want to try everything, so make sure you don’t eat before you go!
Films they will be showing every Tuesday evening over the summer, with doors opening at 6.20pm, will be classics such as The Princess Bride, The Goonies, Singin’ In The Rain, Some Like It Hot and Casablanca.