How to Launch a Space in 12 Easy Steps
(Spoiler: None of them are easy)
Step 1: Wake up early.
Step 2: Realise the DJ cables are missing.
Step 3: Pretend everything’s fine.
Step 4: Steel drums arrive.
Step 5: Someone cries (with joy).
Step 6: Poetry writer arrives.
Step 7: The guests arrive. You smile like you slept.
Step 8: The free photobooth becomes a confessional.
Step 9: You get your own poem. You tear up.
Step 10: The team holds the line.
Step 11: The DJ cables arrive. Just.
Step 12: You realise: this is what Blend Family feels like.
On the 8th of October, Tower Bridge Collective opened its doors for the very first time.
This is proof that when creativity, culture and community collide – something unforgettable happens.
From dancers across three continents to cocktails, stamp stations, and cooking demos, every single moment, every detail, every WhatsApp chat felt intentional.
And every person, from the builders to bar staff, Food Partners to the technical team, marketing, and managers to the event planners, made it all happen.
We’re officially open.
We’re proud. We’re slightly sleep-deprived.
And we’re already planning the next one.
Oh – and that poem? It’s at the end of this blog. It put into words what we’d been building all along – without even trying.
Blend
Here, near
rush of Thames,
a bridge
between
realities. Under one
roof, a world full of edible stories,
lived truths
to place
on tongue, and be taken
far,
and too,
right in the middle of here,
this blend
of human flavours,
blooming,
where a river runs.