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 11 May 2025 in your diary. It sees the return of the Grand Flaneur Walk, in which the dapperest chaps and chapesses of London Town dress up to the nines in their finest seersucker, blazers, boaters and playsuits, before embarking on the dandiest — and let's be honest, showiest — stroll around central London you're likely to witness.
"Flâneur," explains The Chap magazine, which organises the annual event, now in its fifth year, "is a French-coined term for a person who explores the city, allowing wit, whim and curiosity to lead him or her down every favoured alley, twisting and winding their way around the city with no other purpose than to explore.
"In a city such as London there is still much to explore that has not been turned into a coffee shop or a mediocre clothing emporium."
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, after which, the budding boulevardiers 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."
In short: it pays to cut a dash at the Grand Flaneur Walk, but not to make a dash.
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 this to be the truth.
The Grand Flaneur Walk 2025 starts at Beau Brummell statue, Jermyn Street, Sunday 11 May 2025, 12pm, free
