On a wet January evening in 2016, Barry visited Bleecker Burger’s food truck on London’s South Bank to try the Bleecker Black and a portion of Angry Fries. The truck stood beside the Thames near the skatepark and London Eye, serving burgers from a compact open kitchen while rain reflected the lights across the riverside pavement.

This Roberts London archive film captures a particular stage in London’s street-food story. Bleecker had developed a following through its mobile operation before becoming more widely established in the city. The South Bank truck combined a simple menu with a dramatic riverside setting, and the film records both the food and the atmosphere surrounding it.

A rainy walk along the South Bank

The visit begins on the riverside after dark. Umbrellas move through the frame, the pavement is shining with rain and the London Eye appears through the winter weather. It is not the easiest evening for outdoor food, but the conditions give the South Bank a recognisable character: bright attractions, reflected lights and people continuing their walk beside the Thames.

The route passes the skatepark beneath the Queen Elizabeth Hall before reaching the truck. The surrounding public space is an important part of the film. This is not a conventional restaurant visit; the food is prepared and eaten within the movement of the South Bank itself.

The Bleecker Burger truck

The black truck is compact and clearly branded, with the serving hatch opening directly onto the riverside. From outside, customers can see the grill, the preparation counter and the cooks working through the orders.

The short menu centres on burgers and fries. Barry chooses the Bleecker Black, then one of the most distinctive items: two beef patties with cheese and a layer of black pudding between them. The order is completed with Angry Fries, dressed with hot sauce and blue-cheese sauce.

Burgers from the open kitchen

The truck’s open hatch turns the cooking process into part of the visit. Patties, buns and cheese are assembled within a narrow stainless-steel workspace, with finished burgers lined up beside the grill before being handed across the counter.

The footage is a useful record of the practical immediacy that defined much of London’s street-food movement at the time. There is little separation between ordering, cooking and eating. The customer can watch the burger being made, collect it from the same hatch and find a place nearby to eat it.

The Bleecker Black and Angry Fries

Opened inside its takeaway box, the Bleecker Black reveals its construction clearly. The dark black-pudding layer sits between two pink-centred beef patties, with melted cheese, onions and sauce held inside a toasted sesame bun. Beside it, the fries are covered with the contrasting red and pale sauces that give the Angry Fries their name.

The black pudding is the feature that separates this burger from a standard double cheeseburger. It adds richness and a distinctly British element to a format shaped by American burger culture. The cross-section also provides the film’s strongest food image, showing the patties, cheese and black pudding as separate layers.

Tasting the burger beside the river

Barry tastes the burger outside in the rain rather than retreating to an indoor table. The film gives the food a favourable verdict, particularly the flavour and construction of the Bleecker Black, while showing the unavoidable practical challenge of eating a substantial burger outdoors on a winter evening.

The tasting sequence keeps the review grounded in the original setting. People continue to pass behind him, the London Eye remains visible nearby and the lighting from the riverside attractions colours the scene.

A South Bank street-food snapshot

The closing view looks down on the illuminated truck, with customers gathered around it and the Thames beyond. From this angle, the scale of the operation is especially clear: a small mobile kitchen occupying one corner of a much larger London landscape.

More than a burger review, the film preserves a moment when Bleecker’s identity was closely tied to its truck and London’s street-food scene. The rainy pavement, skatepark, river and London Eye make the location inseparable from the meal. Together they form a compact archive of a South Bank evening in early 2016.