The Foundry, Old Street  

Pretension comes in various guises, from Leicester Square's 'no trainers' bars, to 'reserve a table' pubs in Chelsea. In this vein, the last reviewer of Foundry tapped into the idea that nothing is more annoying than pretentious Hoxtonites. Its true that, on occasion, we've encountered people here who thought they deserved some sort of coolest cat on the block award, but avoid these inconsequential little 'uns and Foundry isn't bad at all. Established by the KLF (presumably with the money they didn't burn) this what Hoxton was supposed to be like. The interior is like a Berlin squat (sadly without Berlin prices) and old couches share the space with banks of ancient computer screens, which flicker like in some dystopian sci-fi film. The rest of the décor is plain unsettling in places and the descent into the basement venue space is graffiti covered - not Banksy style, just a mess. Speaking of the basement, on our last visit we encountered a "noise festival", but anything goes down here - poetry readings are common, we understand. Understandably it's busy and shambolic, but usually seems to attract a more mixed crowd than its décor and attitude would suggest.

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