A short walk from Spitalfields Market, Light Bar has one of the best outdoor areas in East London: its large beer garden is a veritable sun-trap, filled with picnic tables and shielded from Shoreditch High Street by high walls decorated with imaginative graffiti-art murals.
I've spent a lot of time at Light Bar this summer. My first visit was entirely unplanned: meeting with a couple of friends for a coffee one Sunday afternoon, we were dazzled by a rare bit of sunshine and decided that drinks would be more appropriate! We spent a good few hours there, lazing in the sun with a bottle (or two) of prosecco, and soaking up the lively atmosphere - despite being a Sunday, Light Bar was buzzing with flocks of people drawn outside by the brief spell of good weather at the end of yet another wet weekend. We were squeezed in somewhat tightly, but our 'neighbours' were friendly enough (and even swapped us a few nachos in exchange for a napkin or two!)
Since then, I have been back three times in fairly quick succession - the Shoreditch location makes Light Bar an ideal spot both for after-work drinks and as a starting point on a Saturday night, and the atmosphere is always good.
On my most recent visit, a friend of mine had booked two of the large picnic tables for her birthday and a big group of us sat outside drinking round after round of the reasonably priced prosecco (£22 is very good value given how tasty it is....but it does seem to give the worst hangovers!)
I'm sad that, with summer drawing to a close, I may not get the chance to come here quite as often...although the cool indoor area does means that Light Bar still has a lot to offer even on days when the weather conditions are not quite so clement.
