- Purgatory Bar is a cocktail bar on the ground floor of a Grade II listed building at 13 Cambridge Street, near Victoria, with escape rooms in the basement. It belongs to the owner of No Escape London.
- Both venues have been clients of ours since 2023. We plan, film, edit, write and publish their social media every month.
- From 1 January to 1 June 2026 the bar's Instagram had 4,122,468 views with nothing spent on adverts, most of them from one Reel in February.
- A venue like this sells on what people can see: a red room, theatrical cocktails, surprising corners and a reason to come back. Those are the things worth putting on a shot list.
- Any bar can brief a creator the same way: film before opening, list the signature drinks and rooms, plan around the events calendar, and agree who appears on camera.
The venue in one paragraph
Purgatory Bar sits on a corner of Cambridge Street in Pimlico, a few minutes from Victoria Station. The building is Grade II listed and dates from 1847; it was the Greyhound pub before it became a restaurant for a short while and then Purgatory, according to CAMRA's listing for the bar. The cocktail bar takes the ground floor, and the escape rooms are below it in the basement. Time Out describes the interior as drawing on Gaudí and gothic architecture, with plush seating, in its listing for Purgatory Bar.
The venue is part of the same business as No Escape, the escape room company, and its owner owns both. Both venues have been clients of ours since 2023, and the people behind them are also friends of ours, which is how Velena came to know the bar well enough to write about it in December 2023. That first article was a love letter to the place. This version keeps everything we saw there and turns it into something more useful: a look at what we film for a venue like this, and why it works.
If you run a bar, a restaurant or an experience venue, the details of Purgatory matter less than the pattern. A place that was built to be looked at gives a creator a lot to work with, but every venue has a version of the same raw material: a room, a menu, a few corners people talk about, and moments when the place is at its best.
What we film there
When Velena first wrote about Purgatory, she described walking into a room bathed in red, with stylish tables and sofas and a bar that makes a natural backdrop for photographs. That description is, in effect, a shot list. Here is how the parts of the venue turn into content.
- The room itselfThe red light, the flowers and branches around the sign, the sofas and the bar. A slow walk through the room, filmed before the doors open, gives a venue an establishing shot it can use for months, in Reels, Stories and on its website.
- The corners nobody expectsEven the toilets and the staircase at Purgatory were designed with the same care as the bar, from floor to ceiling. Spaces like these are what guests photograph on their own phones, so they are worth filming properly: they are the details people share.
- The signature cocktailsThe menu follows the theme, with drinks such as the Fallen Angel and a Spicy Blood Orange Margarita. One favourite, the I Scream, was made to look like an ice cream. A drink that looks like nothing else is a ready-made short video: the pour, the garnish, the first lift of the glass.
- Food alongside the drinksIn 2023 the bar teamed up with Sandjugo, the restaurant next door, so guests could order Asian food, including sushi, with their cocktails. Food changes the story a venue can tell, from a place for one drink to a place for an evening.
- The escape rooms belowBeneath the bar there was one escape room in 2023, with a second being built. Today CAMRA lists two themed rooms in the basement. A bar with a game downstairs gives content a second reason to visit, and a natural pairing for group bookings.
- The nights that bring people backVelena's own visits included birthday celebrations, Halloween and Christmas parties, and the bar's pub quizzes and events. A calendar like this is a content calendar: every themed night is a reason to post before, during and after.
- The people who run itThe owners are hands-on and friendly, and guests meet them at the bar. Owners on camera, briefly and naturally, give a venue's account a face that a polished advert cannot.
Why a venue like this works on social
People choose where to drink and eat on their phones. In a survey of 5,000 British consumers by Zonal and CGA, 48 percent said they use social media to find places to eat and drink, and among 18 to 24 year olds the share was 53 percent (The Caterer, reporting the Zonal and CGA GO Technology study). In a separate UK study by SevenRooms, 49 percent of Gen Z diners said they had visited a restaurant because it went viral on social media (SevenRooms, Making Booking Social).
That is why a room like Purgatory's is such an asset. A bar that looks like nowhere else is easy to recognise in a fast scroll, and a drink shaped like an ice cream gives people something to send to a friend. The aim of the content is simple: make someone who has never been in the room feel they already know what the night would be like.
Short vertical video does most of that work. Instagram raised its longest Reel from 90 seconds to three minutes in January 2025 and changed the profile grid from squares to taller rectangles, so vertical video now fills the grid without being cropped (Storyboard18, reporting Adam Mosseri's announcement). For a venue that means the same footage can serve a short Reel, a longer walk-through and a grid that looks like the room.
What the account has done
We manage Purgatory's social media every month: we plan, film, edit, write and publish, with Instagram first and Facebook kept up to date. Our Purgatory Bar case study has the full figures, read from Meta Business Suite for the first five months of 2026.
One Reel in the middle of February 2026 passed three million views by itself, and most of the growth came from it. We publish the less flattering number too: profile visits were lower than in the five months before, because a Reel that travels far reaches many people who watch and move on. None of these figures is a booking. We report what the content did; what a view was worth at the door is the venue's own data.
The lesson for any venue is that nobody can order a viral video. Regular posting raises the chance of one, and how far it travels when it comes, and that Reel arrived after years of steady work by the same team. The owner also brought us his second business, No Escape London, which has its own case study.
How to brief a creator for your bar
Whether you hire us or someone else, a good brief saves a shoot. These are the points we agree with a venue before anyone picks up a camera, drawn from what has worked at Purgatory and the other venues we film.
Our guide to filming food and drink on video goes further into how dishes and cocktails are shot, and hiring a hospitality content creator explains what a shoot day with us looks like.
Packages for bars and venues
A venue can start with a single session, take a monthly content retainer, or hand over its social media entirely, as Purgatory has. Every price below comes straight from our shop.
If you are not sure which to choose, start from the question of who will post. If you have someone in house who posts well, a content session or retainer keeps them supplied. If nobody has the time, a social media plan for venues covers the filming and the posting together.
See the venue content we make
Tap a video to play it. There is more on our hotels and restaurants work page.
Visiting Purgatory yourself
Purgatory Bar is at 13 Cambridge Street, London SW1V 4PR, a short walk from Victoria Station. CAMRA lists the bar as open from 4pm to 11pm on weekdays and Sundays, and from 11am to 11pm on Saturdays, and Time Out lists a happy hour of two for one on weekdays from 4pm to 6pm. Hours and offers change, so check the bar's own website before you go; it also has the current menu and events.
The drinks list is built around cocktails and spirits, with a few wines and beers, and CAMRA mentions snacks such as olives, crisps and sushi-style bites. If you want to make an evening of it, book an escape room below the bar for before or after your drinks.
And if you are a bar owner visiting for ideas rather than a night out, notice what you photograph without thinking. Those are the shots your own venue's content is missing.
Purgatory Bar and venue content: questions
Where is Purgatory Bar?
At 13 Cambridge Street, London SW1V 4PR, in Pimlico, a few minutes' walk from Victoria Station. The bar is on the ground floor of a Grade II listed building, with escape rooms in the basement.
Is Purgatory Bar a client of Velena Lifestyle?
Yes, since 2023, and so is its sister business No Escape London. We plan, film, edit, write and publish the bar's social media every month. The figures are in our Purgatory Bar case study.
How did the bar's Instagram reach 4.1 million views?
From 1 January to 1 June 2026 the account had 4,122,468 views with no ad spend. One Reel in the middle of February passed three million views by itself, after years of regular posting by the same team.
Can you make a video go viral for my bar?
No, and nobody can promise it. Regular posting of good content raises the chance of a video catching on, and how far it travels when it does. We report what the content did, honestly, including the numbers that fall.
Can my bar have content without a monthly plan?
Yes. A single session of up to three hours on your drinks, dishes and room, or a full content day, gives you footage to post yourself. A monthly retainer or a social media plan suits venues that want it every month.
How do you film a bar without disturbing guests?
We film the room before opening and the atmosphere later, in short sessions agreed with you. Guests only appear if they have said yes, and staff only if they are happy to.
Do you film escape rooms and experience venues?
Yes. Our No Escape London case study shows three years of social media for an escape room venue, and we film bars, restaurants, hotels and entertainment venues.
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