East – Local tips (bars & cafes)

The Bedroom Bar, situated in Shoreditch’s pulsing pulmonary, Rivington Street (only a few minutes’ stroll from Old Street tube), runs a finely-tuned precipice in east London between the bloated bankers of Old Street and their drainpiped boho compatriots creeping in from the artier corners of Hackney and Hoxton.

Happily, there’s something for everyone here- especially as the Bedroom carries the successful Comedy Café as its subterranean sister venue. Cheap pints-a-plenty for the hard-up, and a cocktail list to enliven even the most hardy HBOS punter mean this place is one of the few locations where suits and students can rub shoulders in drunken joy.

Add in the fervent Indian décor- inclusive of giant Ganesha- and the dimly-lit corridors and plush sofas here are more than conducive to a bit of hanky-panky. The great and the good from London’s underground chilled house and techno DJ echelons flock here Bedroom each weekend, too: music, cocktails and giant elephants – what more do you want?

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Bedroom Bar | Bars, Music
62 Rivington Street | East | +442076135637
Thu 19:00 – 00:00, Fri – Sat 19:00 – 02:00

The area around Liverpool Street Station in East London was once associated with poor slums and the scene of the crime for the Jack the Ripper murders. Whilst the Ten Bells still stands, the pub that Jack’s victims drunk at, the area itself is now very popular with London’s edgy and artistic crowd.

After a short walk from Liverpool Street Station, you’ll come across the Old Spitalfields Markets (105a Commercial Street) which are open every Sunday. Whilst these markets are definitely worth a peak, keep wandering towards Bricklane where you’ll find the Old Truman Brewery (91 Bricklane).

These are one on my favourite markets as this is where up-and-coming designers set up shop every Sunday selling a unique variety of handbags, clothes and jewellery. There’s also a few vintage clothing stores and chic boutiques dotted around the area, which is a refreshing change from the usual high street clothing stores.

Whilst Bricklane has always been synonymous for its many curry restaurants, it now has a reputation for its warehouse art exhibitions and trendy clubs and bars. So, before your East London experience is complete, be sure to head to the Vibe Bars beer garden for a drink or two before stumbling across the road to 93 Feet East (150 Bricklane) for some late night groovin.

Whilst this place is sweaty and jammed, it has become an East End institution well known for its eclectic mix of live music and its intimate atmosphere.

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Bricklane | Art & culture, Bars, Music, Shopping, Restaurants (Various, however mainly Bangladeshi) | Average meal £ £5.00-£20
Bricklane | East
Markets open Sun, most clothing stores daily, 93 Feet East: Mon – Thu 17:00 – 23:00, Fri 17:00 – 01:00, Sat 12:00 – 01:00, Sun 12:00 – 22:30

During the day people bring their laptops or books and work, read and drink coffee sprawled over one of the many mismatched sofas or lounge chairs. At night tea candles are lit and hot drinks are swapped for alcoholic drinks as people unwind and meet friends in what was once the Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane (check the Brick Lane article). Now that it’s wintertime, people who swamped to the outside picnic benches and the alleyway still venture out, but there is a much more cosy feel inside.

The boho and versatile venue opens at a very early 06:00 for breakfast and soups, jacket potatoes and sandwiches are on offer for lunch and dinner. Live music attracts a younger crowd with indie bands on Tuesday and jazz on Wednesday. Bands play in the smaller room at the back on Sunday and a dj spins tunes on Friday and Saturday.

Cocktails made with fresh fruit are available on the weekend and all year round you can grab a burger or corn on the cob from the grill stand outside. Tables and benches outside in front are great for people watching or smoking.

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Café 1001 | Bars, Coffee & tea, Music, Snacks, Restaurants (intern.)
1 Dray walk, 91 Brick Lane | East | +442072479679
Mon – Sat 06:00 – 00:00, Sun 06:00 – 23:30

Brick Lane offers a multitude of choice in terms of bars and nightlife but Casa Blue sticks out, not least because of all the fairy lights and candles glowing from within.

A lacquered wooden panel of peacocks is hung next to a watercolour painting of a naval fleet. 50’s memorabilia is plastered wearily to the wall. While the predominantly red kitsch bric-a-brac decor means your eyes don’t know where to settle, the kooky collection of plastic chandeliers, hanging baubles and blinking strings of light make a unique setting.

Even though the music ranges anywhere from the Beatles to Manu Chau, the tunes are familiar and well-chosen. There are comfy plus sofas and yummy cocktails. Food is also available. While the menu is limited, the house specialty comes in platter form – international mezze for two or more people. For only £5 each, sharing platters come with a selection of hot and cold tapas and you can choose Mediterranean, Indian or Greek cuisine.

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Casa Blue | Bars, Snacks | Cocktail £ 6.00
228 Brick Lane | East
Sun – Thu 12:00 – 01:00, Fri – Sat 12:00 – 03:00

There’s a reason Electricity is chocked full of revellers every weekend – it’s the perfect reason to get all your mates to Bohemian Shoreditch without a murmur of discontent. Somehow, amongst all the art-houses and backyard gig venues, Electricity manages to draw a pretty wide range of people with its unassuming style, good music and all-out fun dance floor.

Upstairs it’s more of the same, frankly, with dimly-lit Boho benches and couches filled with pretty girls and boys an their rosé wine. There’s a good selection of lagers ranging from Kirin to Paulaner, but it’ll cost you – pints are priced between a respectable £2.70 and a pocket-busting £4.30. Bar staff and quick and efficient, so although the bar looks about five-deep, you’ll only ever be waiting for a couple of minutes at most. If you want to line your stomach before all that reverie, there’s a decent selection of decent (not much more) food which, sadly, costs about the same as most good pub grub these days.

But it’s downstairs between Wednesday and Saturday that Electricity sparks into life. The blackened basement is bedecked with a groovy (!?) huge tiled dance floor which can get even the laziest clubber on their feet. Combine that with various great DJs spinning anything from modern electro to (the best) good ol’ 50s rock n’ roll legends. You’ll probably move on to Cargo or 333, but Electricity Showrooms is a Shoredtich classic.

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Electricity Showrooms | Bars
39A Hoxton Square | East | +442077393939
Check listings on website for opening times

Taxidermy and bric-a-brac aren’t the surroundings I’d usually pick for a cocktail bar, however this place not only pulls it off, it does it in style! Situated in an old meat packing factory, this kitsch establishment is a favourite with the fashion and media world. Even Madonna, the material girl herself, had a birthday here.

Its location, down a gritty East London street, combined with the unusual choice of stuffed animals and dolls is a stark contrast to the glamorous clientele draping off the ornate sofas. All of which creating quite a surreal experience.

The cocktail list is impressive, as is the care and attention put in to making each drink. The Lotus Position, blended with vodka, Mozart White, strawberry puree, mimosa syrup with orange flower water goes down very easily, as does the Adam and Eve, a tempting combination of vodka, blueberries, fig liqueur and lime.

To best enjoy your night, call ahead and reserve a sofa and take in the fabulous surroundings.

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Lounge Lovers | Bars, Music, Relaxing | Cocktails from £ 7.00
1 Whitby Street | East | +4402070121234
Tue – Thu & Sun 18:00 – 00:00, Fri 17:30 – 01:00, Sat 18:00 – 01:00

The Dolphin Pub is the kind of place you feel you have to explain its appeal before admitting to liking it, as from the outside the pub looks very much like an old mans watering hole and the interior screams tacky Victorian, if you can imagine such a thing.

However hit this place on a Saturday night for a drink or two and you’ll find yourself there till the early hours, dancing and singing along to handbag house intermittently mixed with karaoke favourites. Yes, the music selection is what keeps the crowd’s infectiously good vibe going, as one minute you’re gyrating to cheesy dance classics and the next minute someone has taken the microphone and is singing along to the best of the worst karaoke tunes. However the crowd doesn’t seem to care whether you hit that note, just as long as the music keeps playing and the bar keeps serving.

If you’re in need of resting your feet, or vocal cords as it may be, they have a decent sized outdoor terrace where you can eye up the outrageously trendy and alternative types that flock to this pub. Like so much of East London, the most unlikely of places always attracts the trendiest of crowds, therefore West End glamour types may not be impressed. However this unpredictably fun pub has the knack of removing inhibitions and class distinctions as the night wears on and the intoxication levels increase.

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The Dolphin Pub | Bars, Music | Pint £ 3.00
165 Mare Street | East | +442089853727
Mon – Thu 16:00 – 02:00, Fri 16:00 – 04:00, Sat 12:00 – 04:00, Sun 12:00 – 02:00

There’s a lot right with Victoria Park village – and there are plenty of drawbacks. Beautiful little bistros lining the street, ample shopping and a glut of gorgeous ale houses are within crawling distance of Victoria Park.

However, as with most upmarket London suburbs you’re going to come across your fair share of la-di-da media middle managers, overpriced food and tardy service. The latter is spectacularly true of the Empress’ illustrious next door neighbours at Fish House – where I’ve waited over half an hour before being served without a hint of a smile.

However the Empress stands head and shoulders above every other establishment in the area. A fantastic food menu is complimented by the intricately art-deco interior, resplendent with grand colonial murals and quirky chandeliers.

The lemon sole was nothing short of spectacular; its crushed potato and in-season asparagus accoutrements work perfectly with the subtle Hollandaise and an added side of cauliflower (real) cheese. The brunette had trout; melted in her and my mouth while still exuding all the tastes of the North Sea. Service was just the right side of smiley, without being smarmy, and quick, too – take that, Fish House: better decor, service – and fish! And for the same price, just over a tenner a meal.

It may not be the most beloved of bank balances, but the Empress of India is more than a gastropub; it’s a first date.

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The Empress of India | Bars, Restaurants (Modern Cuisine) | Main meal £ 12.00
130 Lauriston Road | East | +442085335123
09:00 – 23:00 daily

Maybe it’s the location (parked just a few minutes’ walk from Electricity Showrooms) or maybe it’s the shady surroundings, but Hoxton’s excellent Macbeth is still left well alone by the masses and swooped upon almost exclusively by rag-tag fancies living down the road.

But we should all be going there, for this ignominious backwater is home to some of the best live nights a fiver can bring; if you can ignore the boudoirish scarlet decoration for long enough. There seem to be hundreds of buzzing nights laid on, the best couple being Bronze Club, a feverish fealty to the best new acts run by pantheons of pub pop Golden Silvers (Gold, Silver, Bronze – geddit?); and Plan B Magazine (the best British sound rag), where great young artists can be seen in their prime for less than a pint five minutes away. The drinks ain’t too expensive, if not the best in town.

So instead of settling for all that glitters on Shoreditch’s glam high street, take a stroll towards the light and sample some genuine Hoxton heroin chic.

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The Macbeth | Bars, Music | Entrance from £ 0.00
70 Hoxton Street | East
Mon – Thu 11:00 – 01:00, Fri – Sat 11:00 – 02:00, Sun 12:00 – 00:00

Also a favourite haunt of my East-End based friends; you’d be forgiven for thinking the existence of this place was a myth on first trying to find it. This much loved pub sits on its own, as the result of WWII bombing, in Mile End Ecology Park on the edge of a canal. Approaching in the dark, you’d be forgiven for thinking it might be closed too, as the low lighting glows dimly through the opaque windows.

But open it is, and once inside you are treated to an interior that has barely altered for nigh on half a century: bronze wallpaper; antique plates, red curtains and many pictures of big-haired local jazz musicians (I’m hoping from the 80s!). I love that they still put ashtrays on all the tables, in some show of defiance, even if they can’t actually be used. Old school jazz bands play live every weekend, when the place is packed full of old and young, having a good old-fashioned time of it.

They say patience is a virtue, and it’s a virtue you’ll need here as the bar man or lady potters to and fro, getting your drinks. It’s very fitting that the drinks are rung up on the most old-fashioned till I’ve ever seen in use. This place ain’t gonna go changing for no one, but that’s what makes it so great, and if you accept that and go with it, you’ll have a grand time.

My parting tip: don’t ask for tap water!

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The Palm Tree | Bars | Pint from £ 2.40
127 Grove Road | East
Mon – Thu 12:00 – 00:00, Fri – Sat 12:00 – 02:00, Sun 12:00 – 01:00

To look at it from the outside you’d be forgiven you’d stepped back in time to a Victorian workhouse. And inside the theme rarely strays; with chipped wood panels and oddly ornate lighting it could well be a seedy sixties strip joint.

Well, you’d be right, kind of. By week Ye Ole Axe – beloved and be-hated in equal measure by its Shoreditch siblings – is still an institution of dubious reputation (it has naked ladies in it). But it’s at the weekend when it gets interesting. For the uninhibited pound-in-the-jar madness that rules Monday through Thursday equates to one of the most manic, subtle-as-a-hammer nights you’ll find this side of Solom.

Friday night means Love Me Do – an endless stream of rock n’ roll hits from the sixties and beyond, where shoegazers meet drunken fools in a heady mix of dancing and all-round fun. Think Beatles, Stones, Elvis, Holly. No nonsense, no nuance.

Saturday night, however, brings Rockabilly Rebel – to my knowledge the only night in central London you can while the hours to The Trashmen or The Cramps all night. An anomalous homage to sweat and switchblade haircuts, the place drags in all those who’ve missed the Cargo or 333 boat. So lower your standards – and your hair – and you’ll be shakin’ the twist quicker than Chuck Berry can say Rock n’ Roll.

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Ye Olde Axe | Bars, Music | Entrance £ 5.00
69 Hackney Road | East
Fri 00:30 – 06:00, Sat 23:00 – 06:00