Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes
Nick and Teresa Letchford took two abandoned shops at the low end of Kingsland Road in 2001, left the 1980s bag and shoe wholesaler's lettering on the front, and named the bar after the sign (Dazed).
Why go
The name is a fact about the street rather than a joke. Their landlord had been importing African shoes out of the building since the early eighties, and Kingsland Road was wholesalers end to end. "We always say it's a homage to a time before bars," Nick Letchford told Dazed in 2012. Two floors: a high-ceilinged ground floor with skylights and the original shop glass, where the exhibitions hang, and a candlelit brick basement where the DJs and the gigs run late.
The room did more than survive the neighborhood changing around it. It was among the first of its kind here, and Animal Collective played it, JR and Dface had careers helped along by it, and the artists who formed around it included Chrissie Abbott and Will Sweeney (Dazed).
In 2010 the Letchfords tried to register their own name as a trademark and Jaguar Cars opposed it, with a patent office ruling set for 6 June 2012 (Hackney Citizen). What that ruling said is not recorded anywhere reachable. The sign is still on the front and the bar still answers to it.
Order this / avoid
- Order: a drink upstairs while the current show is up, then move down for the music. The exhibition changes, so the ground floor is a different room each time.
- Avoid: treating this as a drinks destination. Nobody with a byline has assessed what goes in the glass here in twenty five years, and the venue's own line about "a great local drink" is the venue's.
What locals & experts say
- Francesca Gavin, Visual Arts Editor at Dazed, May 2012:
Over the decade the bar has become the area's stalwart, a place where everyone gets drunk, launches creative projects, plays gigs, DJs, puts on exhibitions.
Her piece is about the trademark fight, so read it as a culture writer's account of the room.2 - Hackney Citizen, May 2012, unbylined: the bar
has grown into one of East London's most famous venues, known for its strong links with the local art, fashion and design scenes.
The piece is reporting on a legal dispute, which makes it provenance.3 - No drinks verdict exists. Time Out's page carries two unsigned sentences and no rating.
Good to know
- Where: 32-36 Kingsland Road E2 8DA, between Hoxton and Shoreditch High Street Overground.
- Timing: daytime through to the early hours. Live music and DJs are a basement thing.
- Booking: walk in. The venue also takes bookings through its own site for the larger spaces.
- Sites: three, all independently run by the same owners. This page is the Kingsland Road original. The Hand of Glory and The Victoria at 451 Queensbridge Road in Dalston are separate premises with separate FSA records, and nothing here transfers to them.
- Hygiene: the FSA holds this premises at 4, rated 9 June 2019, under Hackney. Four is Good. The inspection is seven years old. FHRSID 622420.
- Michelin: not listed. The cached 2026 London standings hold stars only, so a plain guide selection is not ruled out, and no source claims one.
Verdict
could-visit — Go if Shoreditch is where you already are. Nick and Teresa Letchford took two abandoned shops at the low end of Kingsland Road in 2001, kept the 1980s wholesaler's lettering on the front, and named the bar after it, which is why a room in E2 is called Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes. Dazed's Francesca Gavin, writing in 2012, called it "the area's stalwart, a place where everyone gets drunk, launches creative projects, plays gigs, DJs, puts on exhibitions", and that is still the shape of it: art in the skylit ground floor, DJs and live music in the candlelit basement, open into the early hours. The problem for a rung is the glass. In twenty five years nobody with a byline has assessed a drink here. Time Out's entire published verdict is two sentences with no name on them, no chef or bartender in our London vote file mentions the place, and the venue's own claim to 'a great local drink' is the venue talking. Food and drink quality carries the most weight in a ruling, so a room this good with a pour this unmeasured lands here rather than higher.