The Junction: a new music bar and cafe for Loughborough Junction

[editor]

I'm going to pop down soon and do a proper review, but I'm really happy that the area has got a new cafe and bar.

The Junction: a new music bar and cafe for Loughborough Junction

 

[editor]

Popped in for a coffee and I like it. There was a bloke playing away at the piano, the coffee was good and it's nicely laid back and unhipstery. I'll definitely check it out on a live music night.

 

[Pickman's model]

the toilet sign fills me with hipster forboding tho

 

[editor]

the toilet sign fills me with hipster forboding tho

It's REALLY not hipstery here. It's POP-free.

 

[Pickman's model]

i'll have to pop down to certify its non-hipster credentials

 

[editor]

I like it a lot. Good coffee (just £2) and a nice non-fussy vibe. I'll try to get down for their live music night soon.

A look around The Junction music cafe and bar, Coldharbour Lane, Brixton

 

[Belushi]

I think we must have different understandings of what hipster means

I like the look of it but it looks pretty hipstery

 

[editor]

I think we must have different understandings of what hipster means

I like the look of it but it looks pretty hipstery

The people who run it are not hipstery, there's no use of the word 'artisan' in the menu (they use a pleasingly normal word like 'homemade') and in my local experience, live jazz music tends to repel the hipster hordes.

Their intro text is also pleasantly free from buzzwords:

The Junction music bar and café is run by musicians Cris, Luke and Paul.
“By musicians, for musicians” has been mentioned a few time as we have tried to find a suitable space, but is has always had good food, beer and coffee at its heart as well.
We have all “been or still are” professional musicians and giving ourselves and other musicians a place to play is high on the agenda, Jazz, blues, latin and quality pop/rock mainly, but the odd night of comedy, theatre or even “Durango and his talking Labrador” will also feature.
The coffee, is made by an extremely flashy machine and only highly trained professionals are allowed in the same room with it .
The beer, Luke is particularly fussy about, must be kept at the ideal temperature, tilted regularly, poured perfectly, and served in a proper glass.
Paul has been drinking wine for long enough to qualify for some sort of award. He picks our wine with care and help from a variety of friends who have the onerous task of being wine “guinea pigs”.

 

[Winot]

I think we must have different understandings of what hipster means

I like the look of it but it looks pretty hipstery

Security tags are hipster now? Jeez it's getting harder and harder to keep up.

 

[Crispy]

Good luck to them The area is starved of bars and they deserve to do well.
The building is terraced with a load of residential though - I fear for the noise complaints

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

I think we must have different understandings of what hipster means

I like the look of it but it looks pretty hipstery

I don't think it's particularly hipstery at all tbh (and I've been in as I vaguely recall). But then I don't think many things are given how much the word gets chucked around. It'll likely pull in a fairly middle class clientele but I don't see that that makes it a hipster place.

That said something like this:

'The coffee, is made by an extremely flashy machine and only highly trained professionals are allowed in the same room with it .
The beer, Luke is particularly fussy about, must be kept at the ideal temperature, tilted regularly, poured perfectly, and served in a proper glass.
Paul has been drinking wine for long enough to qualify for some sort of award. He picks our wine with care and help from a variety of friends who have the onerous task of being wine “guinea pigs”.'

would get other places a proper slagging off on here.

 

[editor]

Good luck to them The area is starved of bars and they deserve to do well.
The building is terraced with a load of residential though - I fear for the noise complaints

The music is all acoustic so far - there was no PA system installed - and the place shuts at midnight on weekends.

Let's hope it doesn't get crushed by some local moaner.

 

[editor]

I don't think it's particularly hipstery at all tbh (and I've been in as I vaguely recall). But then I don't think many things are given how much the word gets chucked around. It'll likely pull in a fairly middle class clientele but I don't see that that makes it a hipster place.

That said something like this:

'The coffee, is made by an extremely flashy machine and only highly trained professionals are allowed in the same room with it .
The beer, Luke is particularly fussy about, must be kept at the ideal temperature, tilted regularly, poured perfectly, and served in a proper glass.
Paul has been drinking wine for long enough to qualify for some sort of award. He picks our wine with care and help from a variety of friends who have the onerous task of being wine “guinea pigs”.'

would get other places a proper slagging off on here.

Do you really think so? It all seems pretty humorous and self depreciating given the context of the people running it and the bar itself.

At least I find this quite funny (seeing as the coffee machine is in plain sight on the bar), "'The coffee, is made by an extremely flashy machine and only highly trained professionals are allowed in the same room with it .."

 

[Johnny Doe]

It looks hipster-ish to me. Maybe I'm too out of touch to get it

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Do you really think so? It all seems pretty humorous and self depreciating given the context of the people running it and the bar itself.

Honestly, I do yes. And because of what you say there really - in that if somewhere looks basically OK according to whoever's speaking (and I'm not claiming to be innocent of this myself) it's easy to be charitable. Where someone's taken a dislike to a place though something like that would be assumed to be totally humourless and up it's own arse.

 

[CH1]

It looks hipster-ish to me. Maybe I'm too out of touch to get it

I went there on Saturday a week ago with some other Urbs at chucking out time from the Cider Bar.

I am pretty unfamiliar with these sort of places - but if you are implying from the pictures above that it is hipsterish, I'm a bit doubtful.

It had the air of a family run place in a way - with home made cakes on the bar. A selection of draught beers - but no real ale. Fuller's Black Cab was available at £4 a pint. This was the most expensive draught beer on offer.

There was a jazz band on that night - but it was the opening, so may not always happen.

Average age of customers seemed to be about 30 - 40.

Decoration seemed to be a bit tentative. Gave it a bit of an informal air, like the Dogstar when it first opened (talking Dogstar 1 around 1994).

 

[editor]

Honestly, I do yes. And because of what you say there really - in that if somewhere looks basically OK according to whoever's speaking (and I'm not claiming to be innocent of this myself) it's easy to be charitable. Where someone's taken a dislike to a place though something like that would be assumed to be totally humourless and up it's own arse.

You've clearly taken their words very differently to me, but I'm not going to argue about it.

I will say that compared to what I normally get sent by new ventures opening up in the Brixton area, their self-written 'press release' (actually it was just an email) was refreshingly down to earth and not the usual bullshit spun from the mind of 'creatives' in a super expensive PR agency with lots of mahoosive brand contracts.

 

[Get Involved]

Maybe it's time to retire the word "hipster"? This thread is a pretty good example of its complete lack of objective content.

 

[editor]

Maybe it's time to retire the word "hipster"? This thread is a pretty good example of its complete lack of objective content.

Oh, I don't know. Most people I know seem to work out what kind of a place somewhere is when it's referred to as being for hipsters, although I'd agree the definition can get a bit blurry for some places. What word you replace it with? Nu-Brixton?

 

[teuchter]

Some time soon I will pay this place a visit, and post up a definitive review, speaking as an authenticated Loughborough Junction local resident and not an out-of-towner from Brixton. At this point the level of hipsterishness will be defined relative to ultra-local norms and then we need not argue about it further.

 

[editor]

It's good to see that the two pieces I've written about the place has seen loads of traffic on Buzz. I hope the bar does well.

 

[DJWrongspeed]

Hope to pop down, that space has had it's fair share of false starts.

 

[editor]

I might take a look at their live jazz night tonight.

 

[DJWrongspeed]

I miss the old Junction back down the road, it was proper 90s mayhem when it was buzzing. This place has obviously got to work with some tight noise restrictions judging by it's website.

 

[deadringer]

Drove past it this morning in my way to work, looks very smart and inviting

 

[editor]

I'm liking it here very much. Great live jazz and busy too.

 

[prunus]

We don't allow hipsters in Loughborough Junction. This place is safe.

 

[aussw9]

Maybe it's time to retire the word "hipster"? This thread is a pretty good example of its complete lack of objective content.

Based on the use of the word on Urbs I would need to judge everyone as one.

 

[Rushy]

I don't think Brixton is particularly hipstery at all. It seems quite mainstream to me.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Based on the use of the word on Urbs I would need to judge everyone as one.

Everyone else is a hipster apart from me.