Bar Music Hall (ex Hell), Shoreditch

pub details:

let's meet here
bookmark this
- Ask
- Blink
- del.icio.us
- digg
- furl
- Google
- ma.gnolia
- reddit
- simpy
- spurl
- stumble upon
- Yahoo
print this pub

location:

Shoreditch

address:

134 Curtain Road, EC2A 3AR

phone:

0871 258 5323*
* calls cost 10p/minute, click here for more about 0871 numbers.

nearest stations:

Shoreditch High Street (opens 2010) London Overground station
(420m) - zone 2

Old Street Railway station London Underground station
(540m) - zone 1

Liverpool Street Railway station London Underground station
(1Km) - zone 1

Moorgate Railway station London Underground station
(1Km) - zone 1

Aldgate East London Underground station
(1.3Km) - zone 1

how to find it:

From Old Street: take the exit for Shoreditch and head along Old Street until the road forks. Take the left fork (past the Foundry pub) and continue on until you reach Curtain Road. Turn right and the pub is just down on the left. From Liverpool Street: take the Bishopsgate exit from the station and turn left up Bishopsgate. Walk for about five minutes until you reach the junction with Great Eastern Street and turn left. Cross over as soon as you can and take the third right into Curtain Road. The bar is just up the road on the right.

click for directions to Bar Music Hall (ex Hell) from wherever you are

click here for a larger map

nearby attraction(s):

Geffrye Museum (610m)

Bunhill Fields (690m)

Spitalfields Market (820m)

Having spent what seems only a few weeks as 'Hell', Bar Music Hall, as it became, injected a bit of life into an area which seemed to be losing its spark. It's a big space with a long history and has, at various times, been a cabaret club and a (pre-gentrification) rave venue. The interior is dominated by a central bar, at which cocktails and an impressive array of expensive imported beers can be found; just beware that the beer labels for the pumps are only found on one side of the bar. The service is mixed but you rarely feel your life ebbing away waiting and the door policy is normally fine, albeit pointlessly annoying on Saturday nights. The music is certainly varied (and always "cutting edge") with different events on various nights; DJs might play anything from electro-clash to early 90s dance, although Whigfield's 'Saturday night' was a little too post-ironic for us. Like many nearby places, it comes alive on weekends (albeit rarely unpleasantly busy) and consequently you might find it a little soulless at the quieter end of the week. Overall, if you want a trendy place to go and have fun, listen to eclectic tunes and secretly laugh at the more excessively dressed Hoxton clientele then there's no reason not to go.

reviewed:
06/01/2007

Eating at the Bar Music Hall (ex Hell) ... we last ate here on 14/7/2006

Kitchen opening times: Mon-fri: 10am-5pm & 6pm-10pm, Sat 10am-10pm, Sun 10am-9.30pm. Simple stuff: burgers, salads, breakfasts (till 3pm), sandwiches etc. Nothing too expensive.

- quality