If you’re lucky enough to live and work in one of the greatest cities in the world (we can brag a little bit), then don’t waste your lunch breaks sat at your desk eating a miserable pre-packaged sarnie. Rather than using the time to scroll through Facebook for 30 mins, use every minute of that full hour break doing something worthwhile. It will set you up for a far more productive afternoon.
1. Explore your nearest food market
[Design My Night]No one wants the same old Waitrose sarnie day-in day-out. Use your lunch time to stroll around the nearest foodie treats that surround your office (come on, you’re in London – there’s going to be a market nearby!). Breathe in the smells, try a couple of free tasters and once you’ve chosen the winning dish do NOT take it back to your office. Enjoy munching while spending a bit of time outside (if it’s sunny, anyway). If you’re in the London Bridge area, have a gander to Maltby Market.
2. Sweat For Free
[Sweaty Betty]If you don’t have the luxury of having a gym close to work, you may not have experience the joy (lol, perhaps not) and productivity that comes after a lunch time work out. Thankfully, fitness clothing brand Sweaty Betty are embracing the glorious lunch break. They’re running weekly, free in-store classes across their branches in Shoreditch, Wimbledon and Canary Wharf. The slots fill up well in advance, but you can check out the timetable and book your place here.
3. See a show
[St Bride Foundation]At the St Bride Foundation, the Lunchbox Theatre puts on daytime shows which start at 1pm sharp and only last around 45 minutes long. A perfect amount of theatrical drama to avoid any additional drama at work! You can check out what is showing at the Lunchbox Theatre this month here.
Bride Lane, Fleet St, London EC4Y 8EQ
4. Nap
[Event Magazine]The Nap Station, located in Shop 11 of the Old Truman Brewery in Shoreditch, is open until 11th July. It gives tired Londoners the opportunity to have a snooze for up to an hour in one of their sleeping pods. We have to say, there aren’t many places you can go to take a kip in London. Unless you enjoy sleeping on the tube, that is…
[Wikipedia]Squeeze some culture into your working day by swinging by your nearest museum. If you’re based in the Holborn area, then The British Museum has free lunch time gallery talks, which run from 1.15pm Tuesdays-Fridays. You can see the upcoming talks calendar here.
6. Go to a lecture
[UCL]Make like you’re at uni and attend a lunch time lecture at UCL. (As if you actually went to lectures as a student though…) If you’re not nearby the college, they also stream the 40 minute talks live. Although they don’t run the lectures over summer, you can check out some of the video archives here, until they begin running again in Autumn.
