Bars from out of this world

Or perhaps you'd like to be transported to an alternative Dickensian universe or to a Santa's grotto to down drinks with the elves, reindeer and Mr Claus himself.

Well, you can do all of it this week without ever leaving London because themed bars and nights designed to take you out of this world are cropping up all over the capital.

At the wood-panelled Alpine Lodge, nestled atop the East Room members' club in Shoreditch, guests can don ski socks and furry hats from the dressing-up box, sit in front of the fire and absorb some après ski (minus the skiing), guzzling those Val D'Isère favourites tartiflette and toffee-vodka shots.

And at the Patron Silver Reindeer, open for three days next week, walls of blue icicles and banqueting tables will greet anyone who turns up to join in its medieval Christmas feast.

Two west London parties, Estimated Time of Arrival and The Great Brain Robbery, are well-known for transforming their venues into a new world with every new month.

On Friday night the ETA crowd, whose previous guests include Prince Harry, Paris Hilton, Sienna Miller and Kate Moss, entered a Shepherd's Bush Pavilion enhanced with bohemian yurts and tents and filled with snow, evil Santas and Sugar Plum Fairies.

This weekend the Great Brain Robbery (which in the past has taken place in the lands of (Back to) the Future, hell, Mexico and (Fear and Loathing in) Las Vegas is insisting on Dickensian dress for all guests.

Everything from the Fagin's den décor to the wall projections, bands and cabaret acts featuring Nancy and Bill, Ebenezer Scrooge and Bob Cratchit will be themed to match.

"Why would someone who lives in Richmond bother to go to the West End and spend 30 quid on a cab home just to have the same night out as they would round the corner?" asks Nick House, the man behind Mahiki and Guy Ritchie's Punchbowl, and who recently opened a new venue, Kanaloa, in the City with Sarah Harding - a bar he calls "a tropical Disneyland for adults".

"There are plenty of places to drink in London, so the more creative operators are trying to do something different, creating a unique experience and giving everyone more than just a drink."

He has gone the whole hog, decking out Kanaloa so that "it 100 per cent does feel like a tropical island".

The waitresses wear traditional Polynesian dress and flowers in their hair, a summery scent is pumped through the air-conditioning system, cocktails are served in cups made from fresh pineapples and coconuts, and every time a sharing cocktail called Dead Man's Chest is ordered, a theatrical voodoo procession with masks and lanterns marches through the bar.

"I always look for opportunities for a theatrical element in my bars. It can make all the difference," says House.

It's a technique that Sam Bompass and Harry Parr, the boys behind the breathable gin and tonic, the horseless carriage feast and the Futuristic Aerobanquet are very familiar with.

Tomorrow they stage their "honey I shrunk the cocktail-quaffing grown-ups" style giant punch bowl - an architectural feat that will see them flooding 33 Portland Place in W1 with four tonnes (that's 25,000 servings) of highly alcoholic punch that you can row across.

"We've worked with the recipe to ensure it gets to people in peak condition," says Parr. "It's got such a high alcohol content that it's really clean."

Along with rafts that look like orange slices and remote-controlled floating berry garnishes will be Blur's Alex James, who was brought in to help them create the perfect punch recipe, calling out health and safety instructions such as "wash your hands" and "put on your hairnet".

"London is a crazy place full of the adventurous and intrepid who just love this kind of thing," says James. "I've been thrown in as a taste consultant in this brave new world of booze."

"Theme bars," acknowledges House, "have been around for a long while. But the reason all those many Moroccan-style bars, for example, don't stand out is because it has been done, not very well, so many times before.

It's by coming up with a new idea and pushing the theme just that little bit further that they become 'out-of-this-world'. It provides a bit of escapism."

So, if you're stuck in London this Christmas dreaming of an escape to the Alps, the tropics or to the bottom of an absolutely enormous drink, you're in luck because it's all right here in town.