The Open Guide to London: the free London guide

• Nearby tube stops: Old Street (take exit 3)

The Foundry is an art gallery bar. Their art policy opens the gallery to any artist able to fill the space, provided the owners can select one piece to keep for their own collection. This policy, and the parentage of the place, guarantees constant rotating art and interesting musical choices.

It's certainly one of the more interesting places to drink in London, and definitely cheaper than the trendy bars elsewhere in the area.

Drinks

Strongbow �2.20/pint, Stella �2.40/pint, also other generic pub pintage like Carling (�2.20/pint) and Guinness (�2.40/pint)? Budvar in bottles. They get extra points for carrying bottles of the Pitfield Brewery's organic vegan beers, Eco Warrior, Shoreditch Stout, N1 Wheat Beer, Organic Bitter and Cider (note that the brewery and its associated shop are just around the corner).

Food

I asked if they could sell me "anything resembling food", and ended up with a packet of peanuts, but the bartender did say I could go over to the chippie and bring stuff back, if I wanted to. Cool. And indeed when I came back the next week, in the evening, some people did precisely that.

Service and Ambience

First of all, this is one of the odder pubs I've ever been in, and I've been in some pretty odd pubs.

I was here at 5pm on a Thursday, and it was pretty much empty. When I first walked in I wasn't sure it was actually open, but there was drinking going on, so I guessed it was. There was also a shopping trolley sitting in a corner, various bits of art stuck on the walls, and a cat.

I talked to a pushbike courier at the bar, and he told me that if I liked cider I should check out the Wenlock Arms some time. Some more people wandered in a bit later and he and the bartender had conversations with them too. I was sitting over at a table by the window reading Iris Murdoch by this point. The first chair I sat down on fell apart, but the second one was OK. The music was electronic-y (OK, I can't categorise that type of music any better than that) and not too noisy; I liked it.

It's a bit different in the evening; we came back on a Wednesday night and the DJ was playing the music TOO LOUD and wouldn't turn it down. He seemed to be enjoying himself, though, which is nice for him. Later on someone played a didgeridoo (sp?) and someone else played a clarinet and someone else shouted and did silly dances. (That's 'recited beat poetry', you philistine ;) --Earle

There are many art and music events at this location, which was once a bank. Downstairs, the basement and former bank vault are now performance spaces/mini art galleries.

Layout

There's one big room upstairs, with wooden benches, chairs and tables with vaguely interesting graffiti on. There used to be comfy sofas but they've gone now. There's a little room off to the side with some kind of seating arrangement inside; I didn't go in, although the bookshelves looked potentially interesting.

Facilities

The toilets are downstairs, to the left of the bar, and also have interesting graffiti, much of it in teacher-writing. There's an art gallery of some kind downstairs as well. In the sub-basement there's an even smaller art gallery in a former bank vault, complete with whacking great vault door.

Other Reviews

• Colin Batchelor's review