Shoreditch – Coffee, strippers & Couch Surfers

• By The Lost Londoner
• 5 February, 2013
• 2 Comments

From an antique coffee house, to strip bar, to Couch Surfers couch. This is where our day in Shoreditch took my partner in crime Luiza and I.

A couple days ago I decided to join CouchSurfing.org. This site isn’t just for finding random sofas to crash on, it also works as a great networking tool to find other travellers in your city. 

I joined a forum and soon had somebody inbox me recommending some cool cafes and bars in London. One of the places recommended to me was ‘The Bridge’ in Shoreditch. “Make sure you sit upstairs, you’ll absolutely love it. You can thank me after” He told me….This sounded promising.

So yesterday Luiza and I headed for Shoreditch and found ‘The Bridge coffee house and bar’ on Kingsland Road. It’s one of those cafe’s that you should never judge by it’s caged widows, this cafe is a cave of wonders in East London….its a necessity.

(Easy to pass by, street view of The Bridge)

We sat in our regal chairs glancing around at the fancy decor wondering how anybody would find this secret lounge. The customer base seems to be hipster Macbook addicts but I would recommend this place to anybody. We spent a couple hour’s here, the customers that were there when we arrived were still there as we left, it’s certainly somewhere you can kill an afternoon.

They sell beautiful moist gateaus and cream cakes. Coffee at £2.50 is slightly expensive but it’s worth  it for the service and surroundings. You can also enjoy a boozy beverage from the bar.

(Don’t be fooled these sofas are crazy comfortable)

We were joined by a friend who works in The White Horse strip pub in Shoreditch High Street. Once we’d finished up at ‘The Bridge’ we followed her to work for a few drinks.

I’m aware that strip pub’s aren’t for everybody but if it happens to be on your bucket list then this is a good place to start. There’s no entry fee, it’s simply a pub with a strip pole and room in the back for private dances. The dancers (Yes they are hot) walk around with a glass every 30 minutes collecting £1 from everybody before putting on a raunchy performance, manoeuvring around the pole with admirable skill and grace. Some strip pubs are pretty trashy, filled with old pervy geezers and undesirable strippers — This is not one of those strip pubs. Customers ranged from East London hipster chicks to business men from the City.

And I know what you’re thinking….No I don’t spend a lot of time in strip clubs, it’s only my second time!

The stripper’s seemed to take a liking to me and Lu and even threw us a bra from stage as a souvenir, SCORE! We also made friends with the funniest Irish accountants who seemed more interested into us than the strippers…Oops!

As a woman you might not see the need to ever goto a strip bar/club, but it makes for a unforgettable experience.

(Look a stripper!.. Oh no it’s Lu) 

The Couch Surfer that recommended ‘The Bridge’ lived nearby and almost joined us for a drink so I told him we would stop by to say hey. I figured this day hadn’t been random enough so we went from drinking in the strip bar to sitting on a random guy’s couch talking travel and life in London. I don’t make a habit of going to strangers houses but he had a lot of good references (Always check references). He was a great guy. I guess the life of traveller is all about meeting new people and being spontaneous. 

I always welcome recommendation’s of quirky places to visit in London. If you know of somewhere I should be writing about then get in get in touch.

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