So I’d read about a new bar in the Equipment Works estate opposite Blackhorse road station. On a dull Saturday afternoon I decided to go check it out.
I didn’t know exactly where it was; turns out it’s on Forest Road itself, across from the side exit to the station. So I entered the estate from Blackhorse lane and wandered about. I’ve walked past the estate hundreds of times but walking in for the first time really drove home how dull and corporate it is. Like a particularly unimaginative child built it out of Lego that only came in shades of brown. The place has an air of corporate full-service apartments for people who do no living in the local area, just treat it as a dormitory they can flop into straight off the tube. I’ve seen Stalin era former communist block estates of flats with more colour.
Anyway I eventually found the Black Horse bar.
Coming in you’re met with a huge, confusing work of art.
Still, art in bars is nice. And it helps cover the huge expanse of bare concrete. I’m all for a little industrial chic but it rarely makes for a sense of cosiness. I expect it in a tap room as those buildings are working breweries and hosted in industrial premises. But I prefer some wood and wallpaper in my pubs.
Talking of furnishings my pet hate is here; a solid line of barstools in front of the bar. So I need to shout a little louder and not hear so well with extraneous furniture in the way. And if this place had been full on a Saturday afternoon I’d have had to shout between people.
Most of the tables at the far end were set with cutlery and napkins. But no menu. Does this place do food? If there’s no food why are half the tables set for dinner? The bar doesn’t seem to have its own website so no info there. What this meant was the only free space were tables in front of the doors so I sat in a cold breeze every time someone came in. In fact a family sat nearby and their little girl helpfully got up and shut the door every time as it didn’t shut properly letting the breeze in.
The menus I found on the table have a cocktail list and a cheese or meat sharing board. Cocktails weren’t cheap, around £14. That may be the norm nowadays.
So, beer for me. There’s a beer list behind the counter and despite literally sitting at the end of beer mile they only had Signature brewery beers on. I like Signature, I had a Roadie session IPA for £6.50. But this place could have been the meeting point and celebration of the booming local industry. At least it’s the second closest brewery, wouldn’t want to go all the way up the road for kegs.
There’s no wifi. I’d taken a book and one thing it does score well on is good lighting. I find I avoid tap rooms whose beers I like but have ‘mood’ lighting. Exale and Hackney, I’m looking at you. At least afternoon drinking in the Summer gives me daylight.
So, this bar isn’t for me. But here’s the good take away; a new bar opened in Walthamstow in 2022 during the cost of living crisis. I hope the yuppies in their JG Ballard nightmare homes on the estate put it to good use. I hope there’s an unserved customer base for whom this trendy cocktail bar becomes this regular. I’m all for diversity of consumer choice. It’s just not for this consumer.
Weird Walthamstow 