Harper-Thames on the neighbourhood’s late-night identity and who it actually belongs to at 2am
By Harper-Thames
Shoreditch after midnight is a different neighbourhood than Shoreditch at noon, which is obvious but worth stating because the daytime and the late-night versions of the same streets have almost nothing in common except the geography. The streets that carry brunch queues at eleven carry different queues at midnight: people waiting for clubs, people waiting for food from the twenty-four-hour chicken places on Kingsland Road, and people who have finished one thing and are deciding, with the deliberateness that a certain level of alcohol produces, what comes next.
The late-night Shoreditch is smaller than its reputation. The clubs that put East London on the global nightlife map — Fabric is technically Farringdon but draws the same crowd, XOYO and Corsica Studios are the significant survivors — operate within a licensing environment that has tightened significantly since the mid-2000s, when the same spaces had more permissive hours and less regulated entry. The 6am licence is now rare. The 3am licence is common. The result is an ecosystem that is compressed in time relative to what it was and more professional in its operation, which is either better or worse depending on whether you value the reliability of a well-run night or the unpredictability of a badly-run one.
Where to Go
XOYO on Cowper Street: the most consistently programmed large venue remaining in Shoreditch proper, with a booking-ahead culture that makes planning easier than it used to be and a sound system that remains one of the better ones in London. The Hoxton basement bars along Hoxton Square: smaller, more intimate, with music programming that varies enough that checking the specific night’s lineup is necessary rather than optional. Kingsland Road after midnight: not a venue recommendation but a geography recommendation — the Vietnamese restaurants and late-night food spots on Kingsland Road are the best late-night eating in East London and the walk from Shoreditch to Dalston along this road at 2am is one of the more interesting things you can do in London if you are awake and curious.
The Resident Advisor London club listings are the most reliable source for night-by-night programming. The Time Out London nightlife guide covers the broader landscape. Harper-Thames writes about Shoreditch at prat.uk.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com
