Looking Glass Cocktail Club

Bar in Shoreditch
Looking Glass Cocktail Club image
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7 / 10 from 1 review
Address
49 Hackney Road
Shoreditch
London
E2 7NX
Map
Telephone
020 7613 3936
Region
Shoreditch
Nearest Station
Hoxton
0.25 miles
Category
Bars
Opening Summary
Sun - Thurs: 17:00 - 00:00
Fri: 17:00 - 03:00
Sat: 18:00 - 03:00

Looking Glass Cocktail Club is a mystical and adventurous world in its own right (and yes we tip our hats to Lewis Carroll). We are based at the Columbia Road end of Hackney Road, in and amongst the coolest places in London, and here lies the realisation of our dream cocktail club with a speak-easy vibe. Walk through the looking glass that links the relaxed, intimate front bar to the much larger and more bustling back bar where you can discover our take on a new era of intoxicating mixology-focused cocktail clubs.

We live and breathe everything weird and wonderful, thus incorporating childlike creativity and imagination in everything that we do; from the events that we host to the parties that we throw, the cocktail lists that we create, through to our staffs dress-code and the way we approach our customers. So if fantasy and fairy tales are part of your thing, we are convinced our place might have something for you!

Our family, the Looking Glass Cocktail Club team, is headed up by the owner(s) William (and sometimes David) who took number 49 Hackney Road from a crumbling shell, dis-used for years and turned it into the delight that it is today. After a year in the design/build and a year running this fantastic space as a a cocktail club, Looking Glass has established itself as one of east London's best speakeasys.

Looking Glass is supported by its dedicated core staff: Bar manager Pietro and head bar tender Matteo, (both of whom think they own the place and behave as though they do). We love them like family and Looking Glass wouldn't be the same without them.

Looking Glass Cocktail Club Picture Gallery

Looking Glass Cocktail Club Picture
Looking Glass Cocktail Club Picture
Looking Glass Cocktail Club Picture
Looking Glass Cocktail Club Picture

All In London Review

Looking Glass is an impressive cocktail lovers den

Review Image
What with the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, Looking Glass must be having a bit of a moment. A Shoreditch ‘speakeasy’, this is a bar that succeeds on surface but has more to it than its chic ramshackle arrangement.

Catering towards what we’ll call ‘the shoreditch crowd’, Looking Glass is an impressive cocktail lovers den. Out of sight but on the mind, it even has its own mixing laboratory hidden away below it. Drinks here are serious and should you fail to be turned on by the current Alice themed cocktail almanac, the bar staff can help you off menu. Not that finding something tasty should be a problem. As fans of Manhattans, we drank the Nobody’s Perfect, which was a mix of calvados, homemade vermouth and barrel-aged sherry that pulled off the twist on the classic that we were promised. Drinks are priced at around £10 a cocktail, which certainly puts the bar at the top end of Shoreditch cocktail bars in a bracket with the nearby Ace Hotel, Nightjar and Happiness Forgets.

Live jazz, film screenings and altogether saucier entertainment can sometimes be found in a secret room accessed through a swinging mirror, which makes Looking Glass an attractive proposition if you’re after more than just fine cocktails.

Some might find that it all feels like it’s trying a bit too hard, and while we can see that, we’d respond by saying that we’d rather see a bar like Looking Glass that works hard for your custom than those that take your willingness to pay £12 a cocktail for granted. Having stumbled on the bar in the early hours of a Saturday night, we can only salute the Looking Glass for offering a decent spot for sipping drinks and watching the clock get later and later…

Reviewed by T.A.O anonymously
Published on Aug 6, 2015


In The News

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Looking Glass Cocktail Club Launches New Cocktail Menu

Inspired by tales and myths from around the world

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