The Redchurch, Shoreditch, E2

Walking past this small bar, I saw the name and assumed it had something to do with the local Redchurch Brewery. Unfortunately, upon entering, it quickly became apparent that it doesn’t – not only are there no hand pumps and just three keg beers, the place seems to specialise in cocktails, with beer being a bit of an afterthought. I decided to stick around, at least for the purposes of being able to write a review, but I quickly wished I hadn’t when I was charged £5.00 for a pint of Lowenbrau – one of three keg beer options along with Stella and Ashai. The bar is a single, narrow room which looks like a shop conversion. You enter into a bare boarded seating area with upholstered red settles and benches set up to form several cosy booths down the left hand side, with a single long banquette along the opposite wall but with no tables in front of it. There is a lovely tiled fireplace with an elaborately designed mirror above whilst a few old framed photos are dotted around the walls. The bar appears on the right hand side of the rear section and has an impressive spirit bottle display on the bar back, which I suppose you would expect in a cocktail bar. The walls in this rear half are decorated with various whiskey mirrors and some wooden spirit advertisements as well as glass display cases full of more spirit bottles. Bizarrely there is a dead lion, which has been turned into a rug, hanging from the ceiling. A DJ booth stands in one corner (some half decent music played in the background during my stay), whilst a small curved banquette in the other corner was roped off, VIP area style, and had a glitter ball hanging above. Whilst in the toilets, I noticed a seat next to the sinks, which suggests that it is often frequented by one of those annoying perfume toting attendants. This was a bit of a disaster and I can imagine it will only appeal to those who enjoy expensive cocktails. If you want to drink keg beers, you’ll find far more interesting stuff in the Brewdog bar over the road, and at much more tolerable prices, which I never thought I’d hear myself saying.

Official site of The Redchurch Bar - www.theredchurch.co.uk

Official site of The Redchurch Bar - www.theredchurch.co.uk