Mike samples the high life at Millbank Tower’s Altitude London.
Approaching, I realize there’s nothing else as tall anywhere around it, so I wonder how it got planning permission being so close to Tate Britain and Westminster. However, having since been home to both the Conservative and more famously the Labour party, it has gained notoriety and even a grade II listing.
I meet my former colleague Kelly, my guest for the night, shortly after passing through airport style security with a fake door frame to walk through and a uniformed security man with a lump of plastic resembling a hand held detector.
Kelly and I have attended a fair few corporate shin digs in our time and we are both skeptical of themed outfits like this but we’ll see how we go. Once’Checked in’ with wristbands, we move into the’departures hall’ where there’s a wall-mounted information board showing’flights’ to the top – hmm.
Thankfully, apart from this, the resemblance to an airport is nil because a long bar churns out trays of refreshing Mojitos and Pimms which are handed out, along with nibbles such as juicy mini burgers, chicken sticks, little spring rolls or delicious spoons of beetroot salmon which are distributed by Altitude Airways’crew’ in abundance.
It’s time for our’flight’ which obviously turns out to be in a lift. At the 29th floor we emerge into a vast white floor and walled space with huge windows full of skyline. It wraps almost 360 degrees around the tower and after the obligatory snap of the stunning views reaching from the Houses of Parliament to the London Eye below, we grab glasses of wine and amble around.
Mini activities are dotted about including photo booth experiences, games and shot tastings, but Kelly makes a b-line for the candyfloss making man who twizzles you up his fluffy flavoured nonsense-on-a-stick while you wait.
As the sun sets we suddenly notice the staff are clearing and our corporate event alarm bells ring just in time to grab two fresh glasses of wine and be the last to get ushered out, only to be informed it’s not the end, merely the move one floor down to the final event space.
Yet more food is on offer, this time set out in stalls of meat or veg skewers with rice and trays of help yourself mac’n’cheese. We sample bits of everything and it’s all of a fine standard.
‘Altitude Airways’ is a slick operation with different offerings to keep diverse corporates happy, well fed and watered, oh yes and that view does make it a bit special.
We agree the only way to improve the experience would be to get access to the actual rooftop and install a sky-terrace called’The Runway’. That’s unlikely but there is talk of a pop-up restaurant led by a celebrity chef, so even non-corporate Joe public may get to eat and enjoy the sights.
Having completed taxi-ing, we bid our farewells and take off into the night.