Films, plays, live music, DJs: a boost to nearby Gillett Square

HAS Bradbury Street’s time come?

This group of Victorian shop buildings off Kingsland High Street has been home to some intriguing shops but even the Dalston Jazz Bar just around the corner from the Clockwork Orange-like Gillett Square has not made the street hip.

That may change with the opening, hoped to be in December, of the Servant Jazz Quarters, whose progenitor describes it as “not a club… but an art café bar – whatever that means”.

Loving Dalston will try to say what it means: by day, if Hackney council grants all the requested permissions, the Quarters will be a café – offering “toasted panini, tea, coffee, cake, cheeseboards, fresh juices” – by night – at least (depending on the council), on Thursdays until midnight, Fridays (2am) and Saturdays (2am), “aperitifs, cocktails, wine, bottled beers, spirits”.

On various evenings the venue will screen films and plays and present live music and DJs – dancing on Friday and Saturdays from, the planning application says, 6pm to 2am.

Work on the project started several years ago. The people behind it chose Dalston “because we want to be in the heart of the jungle. Local community is an important aspect of this.

“The space itself is unique: with distinctive architecture and notable character, it deserves to be a public space.”

* Servant Jazz Quarters, 10a Bradbury Street (western end), London N16 8JN. Some events free, others about £6. 

David Altheer 071010

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