june-2012

In the early 1990s, the then-lifeless
districts of Hoxton and Shoreditch
became home to young, fashionable
artists such as Damien Hirst and Tracey
Emin. Th is infl ux fuelled east London’s
creative boom, a fl urry of activity that
ultimately resulted in higher prices,
pushing the creatives further out, now as
far as the Olympic Stadium.
Th is movement has seen Dalston, a
district with large Turkish and
Caribbean populations, overtake
Shoreditch as London’s hub for hipsters:
a subculture of young people into nonmainstream
music, fi lm and fashion.
Venues such as Power Lunches, where
local bands rehearse, record and
perform, and Cafe Oto, where eclectic
and bizarre music from around the world
is the norm, attract people who wouldn’t
be seen dead in a Coldplay T-shirt.
But for some, even live music is a
tired concept. At Dalston’s Victoria pub
34 Holland Herald
TOP
Brick Lane street
life
FACING PAGE
Allen Park
LEFT
The area around
Spitalfields is
awash with
boutiques
on a Monday evening, a group of
performance poets are rhyming on
subjects as diverse as feminism,
astrophysics and toilet etiquette.
“Poetry is defi nitely cool now,” says
Hammer & Tongue’s host and
co-organiser Michelle Madsen, moments
aft er treating the audience to a piece
about Jocelyn Bell Burnell, a Northern
Irish astrophysicist.
“Th e poets battle against each other to
win over the audience,” she explains,
insisting that spoken word is absolutely
the next big thing.
Th at’s just the tip of the alternative
nightlife iceberg. At Th e Book Club in
Shoreditch, there are nights themed
around table tennis, while at the George
Tavern in Whitechapel, a group called
Die Freche Muse host a 1920s-style
Berlin cabaret with burlesque and
Dixieland jazz.
For a totally immersive experience,
Live Art Speed Dating at Stoke
“ Central
London has the
theatres, west
London the
museums, but
the east is
where new
ideas begin ”
Newington International Airport sees
brave audience members spending four
minutes in the company of numerous
‘dates’, local performance artists off ering
unpredictable one-on-one experiences.
And for the last word on
unconventional fun, head to one of east
London’s most traditional buildings.
Bethnal Green is home to one of
London’s few remaining working men’s
clubs, private members’ bars that are
part-owned by their working class and
exclusively male clientele.
Some members of Bethnal Green
Working Men’s Club have been drinking
here since the 1950s, but a few years ago
the club almost closed permanently.