Review

Let's do the history lesson first; The Tattershall Castle was built as a passenger ferry and worked the River Humber between Hull and New Holland. Then somebody decided to build the Humber Suspension Bridge and put all the ferries out of business. It was originally brought to London in 1975 and opened as "London's first floating art gallery and conference centre"; remarkably this lasted for 6 years, until the owners decided to give up on such a crap idea and sell it to a brewery. Now the Tattershall Castle lives out it's life as a bar and nightclub on Victoria Embankment, which sounds like a hell of a retirement plan to me.

Its prize asset is its prime location, opposite the London Eye; it has excellent views up to the Houses of Parliament and down to The City and St Paul's. This obviously makes it a prime tourist trap. In fact, when you step off Embankment onto the metal walkway that leads to the deck the sound it makes is remarkably like 'ker-ching'. Yes, it is expensive, but you pay for what you get, which is excellent views and open air drinking. There is nowhere better in Central London to spend a summer evening, if your wallet can take the abuse. If the London landmarks don't take your eye the totty certainly will and there is always plenty of it around to keep you distracted, popular both with the tourists and the after work office crowd.

If the sun and the totty get too much for you, you can retreat to the dark interior of the downstairs bar, or from Thursday night to Saturday night give the nightclub a try. Remember, going to a nightclub on a boat has the obvious advantage that stumbling dance steps and an apparent lack of balance can be put down to the fact that the floor is moving rather any lack of coordination on your part. If watching people trying to dance isn't funny enough, try going on Monday when the nightclub becomes a comedy club, with a show from 9pm – 11pm.

Review by AJS