Exhibition and conference centre’s kilometre-long waterside entertainment district, Immerse LDN, welcomes its first attraction
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“It’s comforting, welcoming and inviting – many people watch Friends again and again and have told us it’s the last thing they see before going to bed,” said Kathleen Wallis, vice president of global themed entertainment at Warner Bros. Discovery and one of two people heading up the creation of a new attraction in east London.
Together with Stacy Moscatelli, CEO of OGX Productions, the pair have taken a space at Excel’s newly minted Immerse LDN waterfront strip and conjured forth a little bit of sitcom magic.
The Friends Experience: The One In London opened its doors this month (August, 2024), offering visitors the chance to pose and snap away in a series of painstakingly recreated sets from the show.
Not only that, there’s a chance to enjoy themed refreshments in a New York-style space after exploring the attraction and a gift shop.
That this experience should be launching some two decades after the final episode aired, is testament to the comedy’s enduring popularity – the fact it has found fresh fans as younger audiences fall for the trials and tribulations of Rachel, Ross, Monica, Phoebe, Chandler and Joey.
the mass appeal of Friends
“It’s got universal themes and many people use the show to learn how to speak English,” said Stacy.
“Everyone growing up experiences first love, room mates, navigating apartments, jobs, choosing careers, falling out – it’s just very relatable.
“The show was really well done and has held up – it’s still very enjoyable to watch.”
The attraction at Immerse LDN – which will house a number of visitor experiences as well as a food hall at the east London conference and exhibition centre – has its roots in a New York pop-up.
“We were talking around the studio about the 25th anniversary of Friends, so we decided to do something like a pop-up in New York City for 30 days in Soho,” said Kathleen.
“That was in 2019 and it was massively successful. I think everyone is a Friends fan on some level.
“We’ve been creating these live experiences in different locations for a few years now, so we see the emotional reaction people have when they come into the spaces.
“The novelty of that never wears off – watching people being in the space, their reactions and where they take their pictures.
“With this one, we started off by thinking about what a fan would be disappointed by if we didn’t have it in a location like this – what should be in London?”
£20 entry to Friends The Experience
Visitors who pay the £20 ticket price will find a selection of sets such as the fountain from the title sequence, the characters’ apartments and a faithful recreation of coffee shop and sometime gig venue, Central Perk.
What’s fresh for this edition of the experience, however, are some significant nods to London including a tribute to Joey getting lost with his camcorder and Emily and Ross’ wedding.
“This is more than a pop-up, it’s a flagship creation here in London, where we bring to life all of the iconic sets and some of the fun from some of the episodes that people loved the most,” said Stacy.
“They get to immerse themselves in those places and relive what they loved about the show.”
Kathleen added: “While it’s a show that everyone has watched at some point, people haven’t stepped inside the physical spaces before.
“We start with the opening credits, the fountain, the music and then all the things you would expect.
“But we also fly visitors to London and we’ve got the interior of the chapel where visitors can recreate Ross’ wedding.”
While the altar isn’t real – you have to hop on the DLR to Shadwell to visit St John’s Church in Wapping, which was used for the location shoots in the series, for that – the romance certainly is.
“My favourite thing about these experiences we’ve created is the proposals,” said Kathleen. “We’ve had 270 across all our locations so far, which is amazing.
“I think it shows the emotional connection people have with the series, that it makes sense for them to do that in our sets.”
emotional scenes
Stacy added: “I’ve seen the doors open and people just break down crying because it’s so emotional for them to be here on a set.
“We really hope that people have a joyful experience.
“As you walk through, we have a lot of episodes playing and you can’t help watching, laughing and smiling.
“We’ve been around the world, and we still stop and laugh.
“We’re both Friends fans – my favourite episode is when Ross has trouble with his leather pants.
“We know we can’t disappoint people who love the show, so we created the sets with a forensic level of detail – we have to get it right, because the fans know – and we’ve worked really closely with Warner to make that happen.”
All this means that when you open the fridge in Monica’s apartment, Rachel’s traditional English trifle is right there lurking.
Jam, good. Custard, good. Beef, gooooood…
key details: Friends The Experience: The One In London
The Friends Experience: The One In London is now open, with bookings for dates all the way into February, 2025, available.
Tickets start at £20. VIP packages (including professional photography, which is typically extra) cost £65.
Find out more about the attraction here
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- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
