Lunch at No. Fifty Cheyne
The Ivy Chelsea Garden's cocktail
This year’s Chelsea In Bloom is set to be the biggest yet, as London’s largest free flower festival transforms the streets of Chelsea from May 23, with extraordinary fresh flower displays celebrating this year’s theme, ‘British Icons’. This year’s Chelsea in Bloom marks the start of an exciting fortnight of events, culminating in Jubilee celebrations the following week, with many of the central floral displays and those of the participants remaining in situ for the duration.
As the greatest British icon of our time, Her Majesty The Queen, prepares to mark her Platinum Jubilee, this year’s theme draws inspiration from the characters, symbols and motifs across the United Kingdom that make us who we are. Read more about this year’s inspiration here.
Over 90 of the neighbourhood’s boutiques, restaurants and hotels will be expressing their own unique interpretation of the theme by adorning themselves with wildly imaginative, world-class fresh floral art displays in the hope of winning this year’s top prize, judged by an expert panel of Royal Horticultural Society judges, with the winners announced on Wednesday 25 May.
For more information on Chelsea In Bloom and to vote in the People’s Champion Award (voting opens on the evening of March 23), please visit chelseainbloom.co.uk.
Until then, here are our unmissable highlights during Chelsea In Bloom 2022.
Dining and drinking
BEAVERBROOK TOWN HOUSE EXCLUSIVE COCKTAIL
Put Beaverbrook Town House on your itinerary for a restorative beverage at the glamorous Sir Frank’s Bar, which has created an exclusive Chelsea In Bloom cocktail. The Flowering Townhouse (£20), is a crisp gin-based cocktail, with melon, greengage, rose, hibiscus and topped with prosecco. Available until Friday May 27.
Beaverbrook Town House, 115-116 Sloane Street, SW1X 9PJ.
IVY CHELSEA GARDEN
Drop in to Ivy Chelsea Garden to sample a selection of bespoke floral-inspired cocktails, including the Garden Party, a blend of Lillet Blanc, Absolut Elyx vodka, sugar syrup and lime juice.
Or leave room for The Wild Garden, a delicious vanilla cheesecake with a chocolate ‘soil’ base, wild strawberries, honeycomb, herbs and flowers. Available from May 23 – 28.
Ivy Chelsea Garden, 195-197 King’s Road, SW3 5EQ
ANYA CAFE
An ideal mid-Sloane Street sojourn, the Anya Cafe is serving delicious limited-edition buns iced with flowers for £4 each or £16 for a box of four. Or, if you fancy a more substantial spread with your cuppa, make a reservation for Anya’s playfully traditional afternoon tea, which includes raspberry caterpillar tarts and cute sandwiches. Bookings must be made 48 hours in advance.
Anya Cafe, 11 Pont Street, SW1X 9EH
FIFTY CHEYNE X RIXO
A short stroll from Sloane Street, No. Fifty Cheyne has created four new flower-themed dishes and six cocktails and spritzes inspired by a love of summertime flavours and flowers.
Featuring edible flowers and colours that echo the joyful palette at work in King’s Road boutique Rixo’s summer collection, the limited-edition menu features oysters with cabernet vinegar granita and pickled cucumber and a pretty strawberry, Lillet rosé and champagne soufflé with clotted cream ice-cream.
No. Fifty Cheyne, 50 Cheyne Walk, SW3 5LR
BRITISH CLASSICS AT THE LALEE
The LaLee’s menu features some enticing British classics, perfectly suited to
embracing this year’s ‘British Icons’ theme for Chelsea In Bloom, including a Cornish lamb ‘hot pot’ served with spring peas and glazed carrots, and a traditional trifle with summer berries, vanilla, and Chantilly crème for pudding.
The LaLee, 75 Sloane Street, London SW1X 9SG
BOTANICAL COCKTAILS AT SLOANE PLACE
Boutique hotel Sloane Place has created three deliciously refreshing Chelsea Flower Show cocktails to be enjoyed at its roof terrace bar and restaurant, The Roof Terrace at The Sloane. Playing with the theme of ‘Wild’, the cocktails include the Honey Moon Sour, a tribute to the heroic honeybee made with a bittersweet blend of Monkey 47 gin, St-Germain, lemon juice and honey water; Sloane Flower G&T, a gin and tonic with a violet, floral twist; and a My Hibiscus Martini, a celebration of feminine power.
The Roof Terrace at The Sloane, 60 Lower Sloane St, SW1W 8BP
Arts and culture
CHELSEA IN BLOOM WALKING TOURS
Join one of our dedicated walking tours to see all of the magnificent Chelsea In Bloom sites. Departing every day between 11am and 3pm from Sloane Square and lasting between 30-60 minutes, the tours are led by one of our expert Chelsea In Bloom ambassadors, who will be sure you don’t miss any of the highlights.
And, to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the walking tours will return the following week, from Thursday 2 June to Sunday 5 June.
LOUIS VUITTON X FULL GROWN
As part of this year’s Chelsea In Bloom floral exhibition, British designer Full Grown will reinvent Louis Vuitton’s Sloane Street store windows, from 23 – 27 May, by shaping trees directly into elegant artworks and solid structures as part of a new collaboration.
After working together in 2021 for the Louis 200 project celebrating the 200th birthday of Monsieur Louis Vuitton, Full Grown is back for Chelsea In Bloom, taking over Louis Vuitton’s unique windows with sculptures of chairs, geometric shapes and a chandelier, adorned with oversized models of garden insects and animals.
Louis Vuitton, 190-192 Sloane Street, SW1X 9QX
Shopping
THE PONT ST. GARDEN CENTRE BY ANYA HINDMARCH
The Pont St. Garden Centre at The Village by Anya Hindmarch is a gloriously nostalgic, wonderfully British celebration of all things gardening. From 21 May, the garden emporium will share Anya’s love for plants while also marking the return of Chelsea In Bloom to the neighbourhood. You’ll find a selection of limited-edition seeds from heritage seed company Thompson & Morgan in exclusive Anya-designed packets, including Sweet Peas (are made of these) and Wildflowers (for wild women).
There are plants for every type of green thumb, from balconies to sprawling gardens, and a new range of garden accessories, including picnic hampers, garden totes, aprons, watering cans and cross body bags, as well as a curated range of garden accessories including bird feeders, kneelers, gloves and balms and creams for hardworking hands. Plus there’s a small edit of vintage kaftans inspired by the type of thing that Margo Leadbetter would have worn to do the pruning in The Good Life.
The Anya Hindmarch Village Hall, 11 Pont Street, SW1X 9EJ
TEATIME IN ROSES WITH DIPTYQUE
Storied French scenting expert Diptyque is popping up on Sloane Street for two weeks. Drop in for ‘Teatime in Roses’, when you can sample light afternoon tea refreshments as you discover the brand’s most iconic floral and gourmand scents. There will be an engraver on hand on selected dates to personalise your purchases and a roster of floral-inspired events to take part in. Engraving dates: 27 May and 29 May, 2, 4 and 5 June, from 2pm – 6pm.
Diptyque, 160 Sloane Street, SW1X 9BT
