Having undergone somewhat of a transformation over the last year, Drapers Bar, home of the riff-raff of Queen Mary University, reopened its doors in September to the grateful sighs of skint students.
A lot has changed. Gone are the shabby, wobbly chairs and scratched tables along with the incredibly sticky bar area. Gone is the slightly peculiar no-smoking/pool area and gone most noticeably is the upstairs club of E1. Students starting this year will never know the mixture of revulsion and ecstatic joy that one always felt upon entering that dark and dank hole of a club. Now that it's gone I don't mourn its passing but I do remember it fondly from time to time.
In its stead the new drapers bar is, well, very new I suppose. New bar, new rooms, new dancefloor, new staff, new food, new drinks. The only thing which has yet to change is the dreadful music but, whereas in the old shabby Drapers, it felt kinda ok to groove to Bon Jovi, now I feel like heaving. Everything is so clinical, so clean and crisp that I'm almost afraid to touch things - not the sensation one wants in a student bar. The drinks as ever remain wonderfully cheap and the food has actually gotten really bloody good.
This does not change the fact, however, that Drapers has turned into any other venue you might find in London, and with that thought in mind, I'd rather go elsewhere. read more