What Londoner doesn't like a good flan?
No, we're not talking about filling your face with cream-laden goods from Maison Bertaux, but a leisurely, unplotted saunter around the city thoroughfares. Perhaps with a hipflasked cocktail for added sybaritism.
If that sounds like a bit of you, then get Sunday 5 May 2024 in your diary. It sees the return of the Grand Flaneur Walk, in which the dapperest chaps and chapsesses of London Town dress up to the nines in their best seersucker, blazers, boaters and playsuits, before embarking on the dandiest — and let's be honest, showiest — stroll around central London you're likely to see.
The rendezvous — for anyone who wishes to watch or take part — is naturally at the statue of Beau Brummell on Jermyn Street (Brummell, being a pioneer of the gents' suit, Jermyn Street being where London's best-dressed stock up on suits and shirts). A few stirring words on the subject of flanerie will be read out by Chap editor Gustav Temple (this is magazine The Chap's baby after all), after which will all and sundry embark on the Grand Flaneur Walk.
We can't tell you where the flan goes, or how long it takes — the point, after all, is that no one knows. But we doubt it's in danger of nudging a marathon-like distance. Says The Chap: "Nobody is counting the steps taken by the flaneurs and flaneuses and entering them into some ghastly database, later to be told that they are fit as fiddles or, more likely, running low on alcohol."
We like to think that post-flan, participants sit on the kerb wrapped in silk blankets, tipping cocktail shakers of Aviation cocktails over their heads — but we cannot confirm that this actually happens.
The Fourth Grand Flaneur Walk, starts at Beau Brummell statue, Jermyn Street, Sunday 5 May 2024, 12pm, free
