Never heard of SantaLash? It’s an annual pub crawl that attracts over 1000 people, all dressed as Santa. There is an entry fee which helps raise money for a chosen charity. This year a few members of The London Adventure Group decided to take part.
The chosen charity this year was Street Kids Rescue which supports orphans and abandoned children in South East Asia.
Since the event is becoming more popular each year the organisers decided to split the pub crawl into a Northern and Southern route. We purchased tickets for the Southern route, the registration meeting point being The Slug & Lettuce, County Hall. Once registered everyone is assigned to a team of about 100 Santas. We were Team Joseph, led by a couple of cute girls complete with a bell or two to keep the team in order.
Our first stop on the pub crawl was The Stage Door on Webber Street. When we arrived another team was still there but they soon departed when their leader got their attention with what looked like a long straight hunting horn.
We spent about 30 minutes in each pub before moving on. Our second pub was The Union Jack on Union Street. By now my long white curly beard was beginning to itch slightly and the wig was making my head hot! It was good to get outside again as we made our way to the third pub. It’s amazing the reaction you get wearing a fancy dress costume in London. Cars toot their horns and passengers yell comments from open windows. It seems a silly costume puts a smile on people’s faces.
The third pub was Belushi’s at Borough High Street. There was a DJ playing and we seemed to spend a little longer at this pub, long enough for me to start taking some photos.
Harjit, Gary & Jen
The next pub was also on Borough High Street, another branch of The Slug & Lettuce. This was a much larger venue where more than one group seemed to mingle. Finally team leaders called their teams together for the final walk to the final venue where all teams from the North & South route would meet, SEOne where they had a live band as well as DJ.
The party went on to 3am but most of our team left a little earlier. It had been a fun evening that had hopefully raised plenty of money for the chosen charity. If you would like to see more of our photos from the evening you can do so by visiting our Facebook group, http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=18487823214
Gary – The London Adventure Group
