Creative Encounters: Spice-Blending Stories
Create your own seasonal chai mix with researcher and artist Roo Dhissou and reflect on the stories and histories that infuse every cup.
Explore aromatic spices and herbs traditionally used to support clearer breathing and soothe seasonal stuffiness, then create your own custom chai mix to take home.
Chai is more than just a drink. It is ritual and remembrance, migration and making – an infusion of comfort, care and complexity.
Dhissou leads this session, sharing the joy of tea-making while gently reflecting on the deeper layers of what it means to work with ingredients like tea and spice, and the stories, power and history they carry.
Walk away nourished, with a full heart, a full cup and your own spiced blend to keep or gift.
Creative Encounters is your creative space in the heart of the city, bringing together Londoners old and new for art, making and conversation.
Need to know
Creative Encounters is a fortnightly programme; dates are subject to change, so please check the website. It’s part of Open Doors, our regular series of free events welcoming you to get creative and connect.
Access
Creative Encounters is a Relaxed event. This means that we have a relaxed approach to noise and movement in the space, and you are free to enter and exit throughout.
We have a ‘What to expect’ guide available for those who may benefit from preparing for the event.
View the guide.
We have information about ventilation and socially-distanced tables here.
If you have any questions, please email [email protected]
You can join our free Access Scheme through your online Southbank Centre account or via email.
Find out more about our Access Scheme
All our access information
For your visit
This event is held at the The Clore Ballroom Southbank Centre
The Clore Ballroom is open six days a week.
Tuesday, 10am – 6pm*
Wednesday – Sunday, 10am – 11pm
Monday, closed.
*If we’re hosting a performance, the building will stay open until the event ends.
Plan your visit
The Clore Ballroom is located inside our Royal Festival Hall on Level 2.
Getting here
Our address is Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX.
The nearest tube stations to us are Waterloo and Embankment; Waterloo is also the nearest train station. And more than 20 different London bus routes pass within 500 metres of our venues. More information on getting here by rail, road or river is available on our Getting here page.
We’re cash-free
Please note that we’re unable to accept cash payments across our venues.
Access
We’re working hard to remove barriers, so that our facilities and events can be accessible to as many people as possible.
All help points, toilets, performance and exhibition spaces at the Southbank Centre are accessible to all, as are the cafes, bars and restaurants. We also have excellent public transport links with step-free access.
There is step-free access to The Clore Ballroom, Level 2, Royal Festival Hall, via a ramp.
All information about booking wheelchair spaces, step-free access, blue badge parking, access maps and guides and other help available whilst you’re here, including details about our Access Scheme, can be found on our Access page.
Food & drink
Next to The Clore Ballroom is our Ballroom Cafe where you can grab a coffee and a piece of freshly made cake. Also on Level 2 of our Royal Festival Hall you can grab a slice of life by the Thames with drinks and freshly made pizza at our Festival Bar & Kitchen which opens out onto our Riverside Terrace.
From coffee to cocktails, filling favourites to fine dining, plus some of London’s best street food – it’s all here at the Southbank Centre.