EVENT // Alice Through The Looking Glass

To celebrate Disney's latest film Alice Through The Looking Glass, an Alice in Wonderland themed pop-up event was hosted in London for a limited time only. People were ripping out pages of the local newspaper - which featured the event - pressing it into my hand, and overly exciting me in the process. When it came to booking tickets it was no easy feat - the event had sold out faster than you can say "mad hatter".

Around the time of my birthday I received two envelopes through my door. One a birthday card from one of my best friends, Alison, instructing me to check out the other envelope. The second envelope read "open me" and inside I found a card covered with flamingos. Two tickets fell into my lap and I found a lovely handwritten message inside, detailing the adventure I was about to go on. Unknown fact about me: I'm the biggest ice queen and don't tend to wear my emotions on my sleeve or let on how I'm feeling to anyone. But when I opened that envelope I must admit, I did have a little cry. I'd got it in my head that I wasn't going because tickets had sold out and I couldn't and then suddenly to be told I was going, was a little big magical. And how someone made that effort for me, and sought out tickets. The card also contained these cute little Alice in Wonderland tattoos / transfers which were the sorts of designs I wanted to get etched when I was in Brighton recently, but sadly the shop had closed up for the day by the time I'd got to it. So now I can indulge in some Alice inspired skin art!

So let's fast forward to the day in question, if I may? My tickets were for the 7pm session on Saturday 21st May. The street in question was near to Spitalfields market and contained these curious little houses, all higgledy piddly, and aged and asymmetrical. It was clear which door was The Door for us:

 

This script was the basis of your - self guided - tour and messages like this were throughout the building:

Upon entry we were provided with a map of the house (really useful as it was right ol' maze in there!) and playing cards which were drink / food tokens so we could indulge in both "eat me" and "drink me". The food included cakes and biscuits in cellophane packing labelled "eat me" whereas the "drink me" option was a grapefruit and gin cocktail served in these curious little goblets.

There were different rooms with different activities suited to those of all ages. You didn't have to be an Alice in Wonderland fanatic like me - but it probably helped if you were, otherwise lots of the themes would be quite surreal to you! The decor was dark and sultry - lots of dark corners, room contents lit by candlelight, and huge clocks which I believe to have come straight from the European Alice Through The Looking Glass film premiere hosted in London a few weeks back.

There was a crafts section, photography upstairs in the Queen's boudoir (emphasis on be quick before the Queen catches you and off with your head), Looking Glass type photobooth downstairs where you could transition into your favourite characters (I opted for the Cheshire cat!), and an Escape Room hosted by the greats of ClueQuest.

Instead of painting the roses red, people were having their skin painted with delicate little red hearts. I had mine on my wrist:

My favourite room of them all had to be the croquet up on the roof. Just like the cartoon / film / book, it was pretty nonsensical a game with lots of cheating and laughs, but really fun!

There were different sessions / time slots and we made the most of our 90 minutes. It was a good laugh and perfect for an Alice in Wonderland fanatics like myself! Afterwards we popped into The Diner in Spitalfields for late night hard shakes and burgers. Their choconaut (rum and chocolate milkshake) is deliciously warming and was the perfect way to end such a memorable evening!

A massive THANK YOU to Alison for tracking down the tickets and letting me experience this amazing event!