Visual Tour | Pop-Up Bar Hackney Hardware

There’s a new pop-up in Hackney town and it’s being run by two fabulous pals China Brooks-Basto and Charlie Mecklenbergh for two months over the summer. An old hardware store with the most incredible shelving units I have ever seen, the venue is every Hackneyite’s dream…

Having fallen madly in love with the place (how could you not?), Charlie and China sanded down the bar, got in some (well, 12!) of their favourite wines and tinned sardines and octopus on the famous E5 Bakehouse sourdough for the daily food boards and are currently open every day until 9pm. Both superbly capable – I’ve written about China’s pop-up Sunday lunches at Clapton’s Palm 2 before – the ladies had a truly packed out house on their opening night last week with an amazing mix of friends and passers-by knocking back Aperol Spritz and Jensons G&Ts with rosemary. It’s such an eye-catching place, people even got off the bus to come in for a drink.

When we popped back in on Sunday to see how things were going, we bumped into the very lovely Dan Calladine who runs the much-loved London Pop Ups site. Quick to the mark, he’d come to check the place out and get it written up and tweeted to his 35k followers! Impressive. Sipping on Moroccan mint iced teas and tucking into a delicious food platter, I got revved up to take some more shots!

Obviously, I got a bit carried away and took a tonne of photos but how could you not? Although, I have an amazing new Panasonic lens for my camera and may have got a bit carried away! Trawl through some of my favourites below. And do make sure you pop in. They’re there until 3 Aug – find out the latest on Twitter @hackneyhardware (the last I saw they were testing out gorgeous honeys!)

Hackney Hardware, 493 Hackney Road, London, E2 9ED (near the Bethnal Green end)