Shoreditch is not the kind of place you visit for just one thing, and most people figure that out on their first night here. You come for a gig. You stay for dinner, then a drink, then another drink somewhere you hadn’t planned on at all.
It happens to almost everyone. You tell yourself you’ll just buy concert tickets, catch the band and head straight home. But the streets have other ideas. So it helps to think about the whole evening in advance, not rigidly, but just enough to know where you’ll eat and roughly where you might end up afterwards.
Pick Your Venue First
The music usually decides everything else. A 7 p.m. show at a record shop and a club night that doesn’t kick off until midnight are two completely different evenings, and they need different plans.
Village Underground
As soon as you step onto Holywell Lane, look up. Tube carriages, which are nowadays rented out to bands as studios, are sitting on top of Village Underground. The building itself is an old Victorian warehouse. It has been running as a concert venue for almost 20 years.
Inside, it’s all bare brick and high arches. Every week, you can catch a live band, a club night, or an art show. While it may feel strange the first time you walk in, it all adds to the local atmosphere.
XOYO
Up near Old Street, XOYO on Cowper Street has been going since 2010 and is best known for its residencies, where a single DJ takes over for several weeks running. That setup is actually useful when you are planning ahead, since if your first-choice show sells out, there is a good chance the same artist will be back the following weekend.
Rough Trade East
Some nights you do not want to be out until 3 a.m., and that is perfectly fine. Rough Trade East, inside the Old Truman Brewery on Dray Walk, is one of London’s best independent record shops and puts on free in-store sets and signings fairly regularly. Check the listings before you go, because an afternoon of flicking through vinyl here has a way of turning into a small, oddly intimate gig before you even notice.
Eating Well Before the Gig
How much time you have matters more than what kind of food you are after. If doors open early, you want somewhere quick and reliable. If you have got a couple of hours to spare, you can take your time and probably order more than you should.
Dishoom
Ask almost anyone where to eat a proper meal in this part of London and Dishoom on Boundary Street will come up. It draws on the old Irani cafés of Bombay and has been doing it well since 2012.
Order the black daal. It is cooked for hours and is the kind of thing people still mention afterwards. On a Friday or Saturday you will probably queue, but it moves faster than it looks, and there is a bar where you can wait with a drink in hand.
Brick Lane on a Budget
Short on time or cash, walk over to Brick Lane. Beigel Bake is open around the clock and a salt beef bagel with mustard costs almost nothing. The street also has a solid run of curry houses, and Boxpark Shoreditch, built from repurposed shipping containers right next to the station, has a handful of street food stalls if you need to make a quick decision.
Drinks, Hidden Doors, and Late Finishes
Callooh Callay
If you have time for only one cocktail bar, go to Callooh Callay on Rivington Street. The front bar is easy to settle into, relaxed and never trying too hard. What most people remember, though, is the wardrobe at the back. Step through it, and you find a smaller, quieter room that many first-time visitors walk right past without noticing.
The menu changes sometimes, but the focus always stays on well-made drinks. Once you have had your fill, Hoxton Square and Great Eastern Street are both close, and something is always still open.
A Few Things Worth Knowing
Getting here is straightforward. Shoreditch High Street is on the London Overground and Old Street is on the Northern line, both within easy walking distance of everything mentioned above. On Friday and Saturday nights the Overground now runs through the night, so getting home has become far less of a problem than it used to be.
Weekends fill up fast, so book what you can, gigs especially, and do not write off weeknights, which tend to be cheaper and noticeably calmer. If you are still around on Sunday morning, Columbia Road Flower Market and the Sunday UpMarket at the Old Truman Brewery are both close by, best done slowly with a coffee and no particular hurry.
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