Last Thursday, I found myself in Winterville with my colleagues for our work Christmas party. This visit included a visit to Backyard Cinema's Christmas Labyrinth to watch "The Greatest Showman", ice skating, roller blading, mini golf, drinks and dinner at Winterville's Street Feast. Winterville first opened its doors in Stratford east London a few years ago, but it is located at Clapham Common this year. It is essentially a much smaller version of Hyde Park Winter Wonderland. Note that I did not participate in some of the activities, but I watched as others did.
Visitors to Backyard Cinema in Winterville this year had to find their way through the Christmas Labyrinth before sitting down to watch the show. Visitors could choose from one of four doors into the labyrinth. One of the doors reminded me of a grand forest entrance; the other was a wooden door with a lion knocker. Another door was a steel door, and the last door was a small door with a jester's hat on it. I decided to take my chances with the steel door, which opened up into a Victorian-era house.
Dead ends in the labyrinth led to empty rooms filled with clocks, and doorways through to other rooms were through the fireplace mantle, through a wardrobe, and out a door onto a cobbled 'street' and into a small room that was decorated like a pub.
After finding my way out of the labyrinth, I headed over to the bar and ordered a Gingerbread Martini and a glass of Prosecco. I didn't realise that we had VIP tickets that included mulled wine. I let one of my colleagues have it as I am not really a big fan of mulled wine anyway.
The beanbag seats were the most comforable seats that I've had in a cinema. While everyone was waiting to get seated, Christmas songs were playing on the screen before "The Greatest Showman" was shown. I've seen the film previously when it came out, and the songs from the film are very popular at the moment.
After the film, we went to Magic Bar Rum Bar, and I had a tropical drink. Rum isn't really my choice of drink, but this was good and fruity/tart and did not taste too strongly of alcohol.
Nearly everyone participated in the ice skating, but I sat it out because I do not have good balance and I did not want to hurt myself. Unfortunately, one colleague did hurt himself and had to go to the hospital.
After the skating, we headed over to Street Feast and choose what we wanted with the money we were given to use. I had KRAPow Northern Thai Street Food. I had the chicken on fries, which was served with spice. The food was really good, and I loved the fries. I didn't have any food earlier, so my stomach was not very hungry and I struggled to finish it. I was going to get some halloumi fries as they are my absolute favourite, but I wasn't hungry.
After eating, I wanted something sweet so looked for the hot chocolate my colleagues mentioned. I ended up getting a hot chocolate Baileys, which wasn't very nice. Then I came across Chin Chin Labs and their pop up selling hot chocolate, sticky toffee pudding, and a couple of other treats. I ordered the toasted marshmallow hot chocolate, which was good. I then had a really quick look around Winterville. It wasn't very busy.
Before having some more drinks in one of the tent bars and chatting with colleagues old and new, I played mini golf.
Overall, there's something for everything at Winterville, and I really enjoyed The Christmas Labyrinth at Backyard Cinema and also meeting up with my colleagues for drinks, food, and activities.
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