Bimbling About Within Boris’ Boundaries
From Bimble, the app for great, little places
America isn’t the only place getting their Independence Day this Saturday. So practise putting more than one sentence together, prepare some small talk, and maybe your walk — because you may now leave the villa. Eagerly awaited like the line-up of Take Me Out, Boris is finally … Letting the People see the Places. Here at Bimble we want to help you make the most of the infamous Isle of Furlough, so we have put together 3 Bimble lists for drinking, thinking and linking Independence Day away.
See some you’d like to hang on to? It’s one click to save them to your own lists in the app.
Drinking Spots
There are expected to be 6.5 million pub trips over the weekend. If the thought of not being part of one doesn’t give you serious FOMO, then lockdown has done you too much good. We say, on this occasion, give in and get out!
New rules mean you will mostly likely book ahead and group numbers will be limited but check with each option to find their specific strategy.
Trinity Riverside Bar
This bar perched on the Thames opposite the O2 Arena on Trinity Buoy Wharf (which by the way is home to London’s only lighthouse) is new this year. Grab yourself a deckchair, and choose from a menu of everything from Bellinis and beers, to burgers and Belgian waffles. Ordering is done via a web app to minimise contact with staff and make for a more seamless experience. Little people are welcome until 7pm, when they have to vacate and find their own way home. By water.
Casanova and Daughters
Tucked away in Neal’s Yard, the colourful corner deep in Seven Dials, sits a Sicilian deli and wine bar set up by a circus slack-rope walker, Cedric Cassanova. After many years towering above the crowds he decided to return to his Sicilian roots and spent the 8 years working with small local producers to select and grow the finest Sicilian products. Fastrack to today and Casanova now supplies his unique range of carefully cultivated olive oils to a series of world-renowned chefs in Paris and London (which can be tasted at Annabel’s, Sketch Lecture Room, Folie, Yopo).
Pub on the park
This pub is returning to normal more than most and are open for walk in business as usual. This Saturday is also two days after their 10th birthday so there is much to celebrate. As its name suggests, the pub is right on London fields and boasts a long terrace for social distanced seating. When Covid is a distant memory be sure to check out their ‘secret room’ for events downstairs found through the woman’s toilets, a real Narnia for the modern drunkard.
Go to Bimble for more drinking spots
Thinking Spots
Now you may think that by now all thoughts have been thunk and any more thinks will bring you to the brink. Or to a second self-fringe cutting saga. Or a third text to an ex, just to cause drama. No fear, Bimble has some spots to help blossom some more measured musings.
Mayfield Lavender Farm
Whilst this purply paradise is pungently photographic we hope you’ll pocket your paparazzi pinings and filter your mind not your photos. The sea of purple swells above the smell and can even be tasted in the lavish selection of lavender teas and cider found in the accompanying al-fresco café. If that isn’t your bread and butter then why not taste their honey during a bee safari experience, ride a tractor or even gaze at the most isolated phone box in the city. Without a doubt the best smelling and dwelling wonderland in the west.
God’s Own Junkyard
If you need something to brighten up your day, all signs point to this neon nirvana. Chris Bracey began making neon signs in his shed for Soho’s strip clubs, but was soon hollered by Hollywood to spice up their sets and has fashioned props for directors such as Stanley Kubrick, Tim Burton, and Christopher Nolan. Originally not for public view, the space was used to show and sell to customers (Dave Chappelle and Stella McCartney to name a few). Today, however, entry is absolutely free because as Matthew, the prince of this psychedelic paradise and son of the late Chris Bracey affirms, “We wanted to give something back, we had such a beautiful thing and we enjoy people getting a thrill out of it”. Chris called it a mess of “neon, light and culture”…but I like it like that” and so do we.
Battersea Flower Station
Nature doesn’t mind the narrow space that this award-winning garden centre nestles in and neither should you. Packed with plants and pots and even featuring an onsite florist, this floral oasis invites you to soak in the flower power of a station that pollutes only pollen. Managing to create a buzz despite having a marketing budget of only 50p a year, this blooming botanic hive offers a hideout from your hectic city lifestyle that you are sure to share with fellow worker bees.
Go to Bimble for more Thinking Spots
Linking Spots
Whilst Boris may have been giving us mixed signals, the tinder match that you have been curating over quarantine has not. You are now ready to link up after the lockdown. But where do you go? You are just a girl standing two meters in front of a boy, and you’ve already asked all your questions. Or even maybe a guy who has just realised he wants to spend the rest of his life with somebody, and wants the rest of his life to start this Saturday. So continuing with the film theme, here is Bimble’s guide to dating and mating.
Bar Elba
Bar Elba’s rooftop is offering a series of retro movies (Pretty Woman, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) with throw-back snacks to match every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Sunday from 8pm. If you are more into daylight dating they also offer afternoon picnics with panoramic views of London from Monday-Friday, from 12–4pm. I mean if you are really feeling the feels why not really Bimble your Bumble and do both?
Private Picnic Boats
If you are sick of screens and somehow haven’t run out of conversation, for the first time ever GoBoat has made it possible to be the driver of your own distanced-dating destiny. Previously, cruising through Little Venice involved partaking in a public cruise or getting hold of a barge, but you can now hire a little boat for up to eight people, or pooches. Pack a picnic and get yourselves a corona (hold the virus) but ensure the captain stays sober. Like something else we know we think this will go viral pretty quickly. Get booking.
Go to Bimble for more Linking Spots
You have a total of 521 Saturdays in your 20s: make the most of them! So Ferris Bueller this bad boy and take to the streets with your A-team. (Ts and Cs Apply. Don’t break Boris’ boundaries.)
And so it was written in the Bimble Bible 2020.
