The trendy Foundry

84-86 Great Eastern Street, Shoreditch, EC2A 3JL

What an unexpected surprise. Right in the middle of Old Street (not just the area, but the bloody street itself), the Foundry is one of those places you may have passed besides quite a lot of times in your life, specially if you live in London (as I do), you go out frequently in Old Street (as I recently do, as most of my friends live in that shithole) and you fancy trendy looking buildings (as the Foundry one is).

Of course, from the outside it looks just as another Shoreditch dive, with the aggravating point of looking ´modern´ (in the worst meaning of the word). Back in Madrid, when you have to decide if you wanna live for long or if you wanna die early and leave a nice carcass because all the booze you are having is just piss, well, at that time you (I) decide that going out in Malasaña is not an option anymore. When you are asked for a preposterous amount of money for a drink, and right after you get the first sip you are paying for as fucking gold and you realize it is pure biohazard stuff… well, then you, again and again, decide that going out in Malasaña is not an option anymore. And that place, the Foundry, definitely looked like from the outside as one of those again and again places.

By no means. Luckily, London is not Madrid, and Old Street is not Malasaña. In fact, Old Street is more the ´Huertas´ type of area, with an incoherent of bars mixing techno (Aquarium, opened until 11am, but that´s another history), rock, brit pop or whatever you have in mind without involving Bisbal (if you are planning commiting suicide just visit his fan club and jump) or Spanish crap. And luckily too, I can assert the Foundry is a great place, and for quite a lot of different reasons, indeed. And I am quite sure that I am (funnily) not too sure which one would I select, if I had to. Maybe its so cool deco, completely stuffed with second hand furniture randomly distributed around the place. Or maybe its so many old screens and ancient monitors and computers, playing random images sometimes poetic and sometimes just absurd, but funny and interesting nevertheless. Or maybe, just maybe, the toilets, where graffiti is allowed and everybody seems to help themselves: not a single inch of floor, ceiling or wall can be found without a clever message or a smart drawing, or, hell, the same bullshit about racists and punks blaming each other you may find wherever loo in the word you end pissing in.

The lecture room is also pretty good stuff. The poetry room they call it… well, whatever they want. Just because it has some shelves and books on it is not a good reason enough to call it a poetry room, but, hell, who am I to complain? With plenty of places to sit down and enjoy a drink and a good conversation with friends, the Foundry is, as a conclusion, a great place to go.

As I´ve said before, this place looks right this sort of place you overpay for everything. Not the case, though. A pint of Carling is just 2.60 quid (an awesome price in London in a late opening pub), and Stella is only slightly more expensive than that, 2.90. Top up that with a good looking and nice waitress who seems to enjoy her job more than she should, and you have the perfect cocktail. At least, the most perfect one you can afford with 2.60 :).

About the people, well, an incredible mixture of the classic trendy crowd and bike couriers outside enjoying a well deserved pint. Thankfully, not too pretentious any of them, and some even funny, as the self styled DJ who asked silence to everybody just to wish all of us to enjoy a great night. Everybody wears whatever they want, which by the way is not really something special anywhere in London , and everybody seems really pleased to have met themselves. Good for them all, long life for the Queen, and good for me while I can have a big mouthed laugh about how crazy sometimes they are.

Finally, the music. Sometimes is hard electronic stuff, I´ve heard, which doesn´t make much sense under my opinion as most people is just sit down and talking. Both days I´ve been there the music was sort of chill out, quite aloud but bearable all the time.

I´ll be back.