Bars & Pubs

By Ben McFarland

Buried away off Bishopsgate in a cobbled corner close to Spitalfields Market where city suits and Shoreditch collide, the Water Poet is a multi-tasking gem with a bar, restaurant, cool pool parlour, a downstairs theatre and a super-duper sun-trap of a beer garden. Adorned in dishevelled decadence, it’s all down-holstered leather and velvets, gilded metal and myriad chairs on which to flex your pint-curls; from Chesterfields to church pews, school chairs to picture-house seats. There are weighing-in scales as you enter. Not entirely relevant but worth a mention. Clientele range from open-collared city sippers during the week and market meanderers on the weekend.

A bevy of Belgians under the Artois banner, Timothy Taylor and Flowers Original hold the fort on hand-pull and there’s Staropramen and Hoegaarden too.

There's serious sausage action on the bar and BBQ menu, sharing platters and, people say, a rather renowned roast of a Sunday.

Entertainment consists of ‘Witty in the City’ comedy nights every Thursday, the (rather odd) cabaret night on a Saturday while, upstairs, there’s pool and plasmas dotted both inside and out.

Time Out Issue 1982: August 14-20 2008