Common Counter: New LGBTQ+ bar and social space to open in Shoreditch

The bar’s drinks menu has been designed as “a celebration of queer history”
‘A celebration’: The venue will serve cocktails, beers, coffee and more
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Jochan Embley21 December 2021

A new bar that hopes to become “a local for the queer community” is coming to Shoreditch in January.

Common Counter will open as part of Glass House, a new multidisciplinary LGBTQIA+ venue on the corner of Brick Lane and Bethnal Green Road.

Sitting alongside a bookshop cafe called The Common Press, as well as The Commons, a multimedia events space, Common Counter will serve a bar menu designed as “a celebration of queer history”.

By way of example, one drink will be named Dance of the Forty One, in reference to a 1901 raid on a house in Mexico City that led to the arrest of 41 men, some of whom were wearing dresses — an incident which led to scandal at the time, but has since become a landmark moment for queer culture in Mexico.

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Beer will be supplied by The Queer Brewing Project, with a focus on queer-led UK brewers, while wine will come courtesy of GRAFT, which delivers drinks from kegs rather than glass bottles, reducing the environmental impact.

The majority of spirits will come from local east London distilleries, and there will be a selection of £7.50 mocktails on offer alongside alcohol-free beer. Locally roasted coffee and freshly baked goods will also be on the menu.

Common Counter is also set to host a series of creative events, from weekly voguing classes to poetry nights and book club-style discussions.

Oliver Thomlinson, general manager of Common Counter, said: “During the inception of this project, a major goal for me has always been to create a space that’s really driven by the people we made it for — we want everyone to feel represented by Common Counter. It had to be a friendly and welcoming hub for the Queer community that people can call a home.”

The opening comes not only at a time of great hardship for the wider hospitality industry amid the ongoing pandemic, but also after a decade in which almost 60 per cent of London’s LGBTQ+ spaces have closed down.

Tomlinson added: “With so many people displaced by closures or lacking a queer spaces that isn’t club-focused, there’s been a enormous need for a more casual queer social space in London.”

Common Counter will open at Glass House, E2 6DG, in January 2022. For more information, visit glasshouse.london or @glasshouselondon

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