Join the Murder Express

Do you fancy a train ride to the pretty village of Murdér in France? Then join the Murder Express from Pedley Street station, as they say:

There’s never been a murder on the Murdér Express…. or has there?

**Full disclosure, I received my ticket for free in return for this honest review**

There’s only one way to find out! So I joined the gang from Love Pop Ups London to see what the fuss was about!

 

 

Join the Murder Express

Location

We made our way to East London – Pedley Street station is close to Whitechapel & Bethnal Green stations. As the golden age of train rides was back in the 1920s I felt the need to dress the part. See my hastily pulled together outfit! But there is no need to dress up to enjoy the Murder Express.

We found Pedley Street station under the arches of a railway and entered to have our tickets checked, before making our way to the platform.

 

 

Seven Sins platform bar

To while away the time before we got to board the train we checked out the cocktails on offer.

I went with the Loco Motive – a gin and raspberry cocktail that went down very easily!

Leanne had the vodka and elderflower cocktail topped up with prosecco.

Chelsea stayed with the classic espresso martini, very classy!

Here we started to meet the characters that would be the main part of this immersive experience. Frank, Miss Tilly, the Waiter and the Conductor were all in character on the platform.

After enjoying some banter and our drinks, we boarded the train to Murder and sat down for our lunch.

The carriage

The immersive part of this experience was very well done. The train carriage had plenty of room for tables of 4-6 and the best bit was that the windows were screens. They showed us the outside scenery so convincingly I could have sworn we were moving!

 

 

The food

Starters

We were served a menu from Master Chef finalists Billy and Jack, which started with a Mulligatawny (Indian inspired) soup.

The soup came with the most delicate cucumber sandwiches you can imagine! More like canapes, they were still cooling against the curry spices of the soup.

After starters were cleared we met the rest of the characters on the train:

 

 

 

Mains

The main event was beef for us meat eaters (a vegetarian option is also available – just make sure you give them your dietary requirements ahead of time).

As you can see the beef was cooked superbly. It was served with pressed scallop potatoes and a stuffed cabbage leaf. We were surprised to see that this was stuffed with more beef! The gravy also went down well 😉

Whilst we were served our food a second (non acting!) waiter came around to take drinks orders for wine. A glass of Malbec went well with my beef main. Note that whilst you can bring your cocktails from the bar onboard, they only serve wine and prosecco once you are on the train.

 

Then we had a brief hiatus in the food, whilst the rest of the drama unfolded:

Someone is dead! Our very own Dr Chelsea declared the character dead and then suspicion was cast on all of us on board…

Dessert

Whilst we ate our dessert, a deconstructed apple tart, we discussed who we thought had done the murder.

 

Each of the characters came around to either protest their innocence, or suggest someone else… I’m not going to give it away, but of course there is a twist!

The verdict

Whilst we never got to see the village of Murder in France, I still feel this was a great experience! The setting, the costumes, the characters and of course the food, were all on point. As an immersive dinning experience I think these should all be weighted equally and I thought it was good value for money for a decent 3 course meal and a 2 hour experience.

A few little things they could tighten up are the explanation and serving of drinks on the train. As I mentioned, once you are on board you can only order wine and it took some people a while to get served. A pre-order system might help this. Also I wouldn’t turn up too early to Pedley Street Station as they don’t let you into the platform before the start time.

You can find out more and buy tickets for the Murder Express at the Funicular Productions website.

Big thanks to Love Pop Ups London for organising for us to come and review this experience. As mentioned previously my ticket was free and all opinions are based on my experience.