How Shoreditch lost its Mojo

THELONDONPAPER.CO.UK: Is Shoreditch still cool, or have outsiders and rising property prices killed its mojo?

It’s being called variously the new West End, the most cutting-edge corner of London and the latest stag-and-hen-party hell hole.

In five years Shoreditch has metamorphosed from a rundown corner of the city in need of a paint job to the hub of London nightlife.

Where once were tatty warehouses and seedy strip joints now stand champagne bars and luxury apartments.

The Shoreditch Triangle – between Old Street, Great Eastern Street and Shoreditch High Street – is now home to more than 150 bars. And come June, the transformation will be complete when Shoreditch House, a super-slick outpost of the £600-a-year West End members’ club Soho House, will open, complete with a rooftop pool, spa and superluxe bowling alley.

But as the rich kids have moved in, the musicians and artists who gave Shoreditch its edge have moved out.

"No pleasant places"

Once attracted by the low-price loft spaces and drinking holes, now soaring rents and an invasion of revellers from the suburbs are forcing the bohemian element into bolt holes further east.

“There are no pleasant places any more,” complains artist Jethro Haynes, 35, who works in Shoreditch. “It’s so popular here that when somewhere nice does open, it’s immediately mobbed.”

Writer Matt Coleman, 25, now living in Hackney, stopped visiting Shoreditch because “it’s awash with out-of-town Essex stag dos and hen nights – it’s more like Leicester Square now.”

This sentiment is echoed by former regular David Moynihan, the 29-year-old editor of FHM.com, who has since moved up the road to Haggerston.

“I used go out in Shoreditch all the time,” he says. “But I got sick of the stag dos and City boys. Now I drink in quieter places like the Prince George in Haggerston and Broadway Market.”

Most poignantly, Jamie Hornsmith, whose group The Rakes immortalised the Shoreditch area with the hit 22 Grand Job, confesses even they steer clear nowadays.

“When I moved to Shoreditch seven years ago it was the cheapest area I could find,” Hornsmith recalls. “We moved to Victoria Chambers on Curtain Road, which was ridiculously cheap. Massive places sold for £175,000. Now it’s nearer £1 million.”

Indeed, the cost of renting a one-bedroom flat off Great Eastern Street has risen over 65 per cent in the past five years, according to local agent Stirling Ackroyd, while the buying market has risen even more dramatically.

On Paul Street, a 1,000-square-foot two-bed warehouse apartment that sold for £320,000 five years ago has recently gone for £600,000, while cheaper, unconverted properties are now scarce.



"Trust fund students and architects"

Darren Haysom, the manager of the slick, cafe-style Foxtons on Curtain Road (itself a barometer of the area’s new salubrity), admits that most of his customers are “architects, City professionals, wealthy foreign investors and trust-fund students from the nearby fashion college [London College of Fashion on Curtain Road]”.

Older artists such as Karl Hopgood and Mark Wainwright, of the Barbican Arts Trust, have seen their canal-side workshops, which they have lived in – and lovingly renovated – since 1989, sold in the past year to developers.

These developers have now made plans to demolish the building and refuse to commit to relocating the artists.

Studio administrator Wainwright is frustrated at his lack of power to fight the company that has taken over the premises.

“We’ve always been the perfect tenants,” he says. “We’ve paid the rent, we’ve refurbished the building and we have tried to engage them in meetings, all to no avail.”

Resident artist Lucille Montague is equally concerned: “We used to be based in the City and they moved us on for redevelopment. Now, as everyone is pushed east, we are being shut down here too.” Hopgood, a set designer and artist, describes it as “a devastating blow for the artistic community”, and with 3,500 artists on waiting lists for London studios, they have little hope of finding premises.

Meanwhile, the bars that made the area what it was have also struggled both with the new neighbours and a Hackney Council crackdown on licensing.

Vicki Pengilley, owner of the Mother Bar/333 and the Red Lion pub, and founder of the legendary Young British Artists hangout The Bricklayers Arms, was forced to sell the latter in April after residents complained about noise in the street.

The Bricklayers Arms, which, with the nearby Barley Mow, is fondly remembered by former locals for its sunny pavement drinking, is a ­victim of its own success.

“It didn’t used to be so ­residential round here and the pub had been open for over 100 years,” says Pengilley. “I had it for 23. But of course when my customers made the area trendy, everyone wanted to come and live here. They then complained about the people drinking outside and we had to close.”

The Bricklayers Arms now has a new owner who will be opening a far slicker, gastro pub-style venue in its place.Now it is Pengilley’s other venture, the 333/Mother building, which is under threat, with the possibility that it too may lose the late licence that is crucial to profit turning. She awaits a hearing that could mean closing time moves from 5am to 1am.

The explosion in the area’s popularity has gone hand in hand with growing concerns about drugs, crime, and after-hours drinking. Hackney Council and the police have warned more than 50 venues, and club owners have been told to beef up security and cut licensing hours.

Councillor Alan Laing, Cabinet member for Neighbourhoods, says his priority is “balancing the needs of business owners and residents in Hackney”. He adds: “Before introducing the Special Policy Area [which restricts licensing in the Shoreditch Triangle], we consulted residents, business owners and police. This research found the nightlife of Shoreditch needed special treatment to safeguard it ­under licensing legislation.

Pengilley concedes that, following the licensing changes dictated by the Government’s 2003 Licensing Act, it may be time to look for a new area – although she still loves Shoreditch: “We still get a trendy crowd in here,” she says. “Peaches Geldof was here recently. But the original crowd has moved on.”

"All the girls look like models"

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Carla Houston, 31, a photographic retouching producer from Dalston, ­believes the area still has much to offer. “We don’t go to the same bars as we used to,” says Houston. “But it’s still the best area to go to for a big night and there are gems like Charlie Wright’s [on shabby Pitfield Street] and Dreambags [on Kingsland Road].”

The people at Vice Magazine, the irreverent lifestyle manual, chose to open their first pub, The Old Blue Last, in Shoreditch. As one staffer ­explains, Vice thinks the area still has a buzz.

“Beer still doesn’t cost £5 a half, the girls all look like models and the boys are all in some weird band you’ve never heard of,” he says. “There are gallery openings every night and people put on unpredictable events where doing something interesting is as important as getting f***ed.”

But the young and penniless who gave Shoreditch its early appeal have migrated to nearby Haggerston, Dalston and Mile End.

The area around Broadway Market has blossomed, with pubs such as The Dove and the Cat and Mutton (Broadway Market) and The Prince George (Wilton Way) home to east London fashionistas. For late-night dirty drinking and dancing go to The Dolphin on Mare Street, where Kate Moss has been spotted. Low-key cheap gigs take place at Barden’s Boudoir (Stoke Newington High St) and there are events such as BoomBox at The Hoxton Bar and Grill, or openings at Dreambags/Jaguarshoes.

Meanwhile, as the rest of Hackney enjoys the new custom of its former residents, Shoreditch is blossoming ­under the patronage of its ­affluent new locals.

Anna Suznjevic, who runs her own creatives talent agency from Shoreditch and has signed up for Shoreditch House membership, reckons that the smartening up of the areais a positive thing.

“You might not be able to have a pint on the street any more,” she says, “but you will be able to have a martini by the pool. To be honest, I think that’s a good thing.”

Rise and Fall

1997:

The Lux cinema­ opens in Hoxton­ Square, followed­ by the Lux bar and other hangouts such as The Electricity Showroom and Bluu.

1999:

333 club promoter Neil Boorman­ sets up cult fanzine Shoreditch T***, initially as a listings guide, but it develops­ into an irreverent­ look at the east London arts scene.

2000:

Gallery owner Jay Jopling opens the White Cube in a 1920s light-industrial­ building in Hoxton Square.

2003:

The White Cube hosts Romance­ in the Age of Uncertainty, Damien Hirst’s first solo show in London since 1995 featuring an installation called Charity.

2005:

Channel 4 airs Nathan­ Barley, Charlie Brooker­ and Chris Morris’s comedy­ series about an archetypal­ Shoreditch man convinced he is the epitome of urban­ cool.

2007:

Bricklayers Arms sold in April after residents’ complaints about noise from regulars outside. Soho House’s outpost Shoreditch House opens next month.

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