"Ambitious intimate venue in the basement of Charlotte Street Blues"

Added Tue 16 Mar 2010 by Leila

Since its opening last year, Charlotte Street Blues has been managing to fill its floor with a mixture of blues fans, drinkers and media people. They’ve now decided to turn their basement – which was previously a games room including a pool table – into an independent bar with its own events schedule called The Juke Joint.

It’s an ambitious idea considering what goes on upstairs; performers such as John Lee Hooker Jr and John Mayall have appeared here to a packed room. However one look at their listings shows this small room has the potential to be a more intimate yet still fun alternative to the main venue.

Mondays and Tuesdays will feature live bands, with Tuesday being an unsigned bands night. Wednesdays are ‘singalong’ nights, where a pianist will (hopefully) accompany the audience’s vocal stylings, unless they’re too shy like on the Wednesday I visited (present company included). Special events and club nights take place on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays – with a late opening time of 4am on the last Saturday of every month.

There is music every night bar Sunday which is film night, and the cinema-style seating and large screen will accommodate the staff’s choice of movie each week. What genre this will veer towards is yet to be decided and will depend on popularity.

The bar serves draft beers and the usual spirits, as well as having the same cocktails available as the bar upstairs. The Juke Joint is cosy and its warm red décor and seating are inviting, however it is yet to be seen how many people will notice the neon sign by the staircase and venture down to the basement.