The Mayor’s Summer Streets funding turned two of Shoreditch’s best known roads into proper outdoor dining spots, and I have opinions about the pavement furniture
I have walked down Redchurch Street more times than I could reasonably count over the years, and I still had to stop dead outside one of my regular coffee spots last weekend because there were, for the first time in as long as I can remember, actual tables and actual people sitting at them on the actual pavement, drinking actual wine, in broad daylight, entirely legally.
What Actually Changed
Redchurch Street and Rivington Street have both been included in the Mayor’s Summer Streets Fund, a scheme providing funding to help independent bars and restaurants set up proper al fresco dining and drinking areas, part of a wider push across four London boroughs to revitalise nightlife and outdoor hospitality. Deputy Mayor for Business Howard Dawber visited several of the participating businesses personally, which tells you the scheme is being treated as more than a minor pilot.
Why This Matters More Here Than Elsewhere
Shoreditch has never lacked outdoor drinking exactly, you could always find someone perched on a step outside a bar with a can, but a formally sanctioned, properly furnished al fresco set up is a different thing entirely, and it changes the actual feel of the street considerably. Redchurch Street in particular has spent the last decade oscillating between independent boutiques and increasingly recognisable chain storefronts, and this feels like one of the few recent changes that has tipped things back toward feeling more like an actual neighbourhood again rather than a photogenic backdrop.
The Business Owners’ Perspective
Talking to a couple of the bar owners taking part, the reaction has been cautiously delighted, more covers on a Friday evening, a genuinely different atmosphere that draws people who might otherwise have kept walking toward Brick Lane, and, crucially, a licensing process that for once did not take the better part of a year to actually deliver anything.
A Small Gripe, Because I Am Contractually Obliged To Have One
My one complaint, and it is a genuinely minor one, is that the tables themselves have already narrowed the pavement on Rivington Street to the point where pushing a pram past on a busy Saturday requires the kind of tactical patience usually reserved for the Northern Line at rush hour. I raise this not to be difficult but because I think it is worth the council keeping an eye on before someone with a delivery trolley and someone with a large glass of Rioja have an unfortunate collision.
What This Says About City Hall’s Nightlife Strategy
The scheme sits within a broader push, reported by the Mayor’s own office, to give City Hall greater licensing call in powers over blocked applications of strategic importance, a genuinely significant shift in how nightlife venues get approved across the capital, and one worth watching closely as it rolls out beyond this initial pilot.
How The Street Feels Now
Walking down Redchurch Street on a Sunday afternoon now genuinely feels different, busier in a good way, louder in the specific, cheerful way a street should be on a summer weekend, and considerably more like the neighbourhood I remember from a decade ago than it has in some time.
Where I Landed On It
More of this, please, and quickly, before anyone in charge remembers to worry about the pram problem I just mentioned. Further updates on the scheme’s expansion, and my ongoing pram-related grievances, will appear at my author page on The London Prat.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com
