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Party central: the Sunday bash at T Bar pulls ’em in

Hot stuff: two of the many gorgeous girls T Bar attracts

For five fabulous years T Bar was known for its blinding free club nights. The Shoreditch nightspot, named for its original location in an old tea warehouse on Shoreditch High Street, had a queue snaking round the block every weekend. It was the scene of many an eventful night out for me and my friends, largely because there was generally less posing and more pulling going on than you find in other east London clubs.

The club closed last December, to much wailing and gnashing of teeth from its legions of fashionable fans. But something has been brewing at T Bar HQ and with a new venue in Aldgate, T Bar is back — bigger and better than ever.

We decided to venture down on a Sunday evening to investigate. Yes, a Sunday evening. Friday and Saturday nights were hugely popular, but Sunday parties were one of the most famous facets of T Bar.

Initially it was like 28 Days Later. The Square Mile is quiet enough anyway on a weekend, but the good weather meant everyone was chilling in beer gardens when we arrived at 8.30pm. So we headed to Spitalfields for a few beers before returning at 10.15pm — and luckily it was a different story.

Sunday nights are run by the Dig Your Own Rave collective with DJs including Dave Congreve and Ben Bryant, and the place was filling up with punters high on sunshine, cider and the fact that none of them had to pay a penny to get in.

We were pleasantly surprised that T Bar's reputation for underground minimalism wasn't dulling the atmosphere — I had feared it might be full of slack-jawed casualties of the previous night's excesses, still going for it. But no, people were fresh-faced and fun-filled.

The crowd was a good mix of young and thirtysomething hipsters and party types and students out past their bedtime, and the atmosphere was so friendly that it felt more like Ibiza than London.

The main room works brilliantly — the sound system is crisp and loud, and the bar at the back is spacious.

It's sparsely decorated but functional and there's a calmer upper floor bar away from the dancefloor where you can sit down and relax with a beer. We settled back with a round of spirits — all served as doubles, meaning asking for a gin and tonic will set you back £7 — and I chatted to Michael Moxey, a merry Australian who has just moved to London.

“I came to the launch night and it was 70 per cent girls,” he said. “And they were all hot.” It's certainly an unusual ratio for fashionable east London clubs... and one us boys find appealing.

However, the excellent music programme tempts people, too, with regular parties coming up from High Horse (tonight), Richard Norris (11 June) and Phonica Records (13 June). After a round of beers (a pint £3.80, half £1.90) we put on our dancing shoes and descended the stairs to the main room, where there's a real international vibe: I overheard people talking Spanish and Portuguese as everyone started to shimmy around.

After midnight DJ Jay Haze was playing a crowd-pleasing mix of techno and dirty disco. We weaved in and out of the mass of people for a good hour or so of dancing — it felt more like a Saturday night and no one was thinking about the impending Monday morning.

Just when I thought there couldn't be any more hands in the air, Haze played a remix of CC Peniston's Finally and the dancefloor erupted.

Shortly before 2am we took our cue to leave. The pavements were deserted, but we spared a thought for those thousands of City workers who, in a few hours' time, would be passing T Bar on their way to push paper, unaware of the thrills that lie behind the club's door.

Was it our cup of tea? You bet. In these belt-tightening times, T Bar is a shining light in the darkness of the City.

 

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