Ever been to Islington Metal Works? The industrial warehouse-turned-events venue has a tube carriage cocktail bar.
Mainly hosting weddings and private events, as well as the occasional club night, the venue is split across three floors. But for us, it's all about the tube carriage bar located in the courtyard.
The driver's cab can been used as a DJ booth or photo booth, while drinks are served from a hatch that's been cut out of the side of the carriage (is it blasphemous or genius to mutate a tube carriage like this? We're undecided). The destination board on the front of the train can be changed to read event-appropriate words.
Except... it's not really a tube carriage at all. It's a fake. Soz.
Mak of Islington Metal Works says:
We wanted something for our venue in our scrap metal yard that was iconic and with a clear London identity as the city
So, like any sensible group of people who want their own tube train, in 2009 they sent a construction team down the the tube 'with a tape measure and notepad' to grasp some of the finer details, and then they built their own.
It's created from reclaimed timber and surplus lift doors from a construction project that was going on in the City at the time. Details including genuine tube signage and straphangers were added, along with door buttons and other finishing touches.
All of this leaves us with one question: WHY have we never thought about building our own life-size tube carriage at Londonist Towers? Someone get HR on the phone, we've got things to discuss.
The Islington Metal Works building was initially used to stable horses that pulled the London Transport trams and was later used as — you guessed it — a metal works. Today, it can be hired for weddings, corporate events, fashion shows, club nights and the like, with the fake tube bar taking centre stage.
When we get married, it's a tube carriage cocktail bar, or we call the whole thing off.
Islington Metal Works, 7 Torrens Street, Angel, EC1V INQ. Find out more about hiring the venue (start sweet-talking your boss for the Christmas party).