THE LOFT

In order to switch to plan B, you first need to have a plan A, no? Presumably that’s what the Campanas had in mind
when they launched The Loft – and, southern sisters and brothers, Clapham is a better place for it. More than just the pre-club drinking den of choice before heading to older sister Plan B (arguably South London’s hippest bar-club) over east in Brixton, The Loft has brought a welcome spark of Shoreditch to SW4’s unlovely high street – and we mean that in the nicest possible way.

As many have discovered to their cost, you can’t just ‘create’ a great bar. Cocktails + music + food + style does not necessarily equal the dream joint overnight – it’s an indefinable, elusive essence that evolves as word gets around. That said, The Loft nails the elemental qualities to win hearts and minds (and gullets and ears), not least of the reviewer who recently declared it London’s Best Bar.

So what’s right? Like Plan B, The Loft does the industrial chic thing – perforated breezeblocks and exposed extractor-fan ducts ahoy – with a touch of New York and a dash of my college canteen, with added Mastermind (OK, Eames-lite) leather swivel chairs. Bar food is confident, especially standards such as club sandwiches and classy burgers: always a good sign. Andy Campana’s mixology nous ensures an inventive cocktail list, and the extensive list of pan-global bottled beers – Coopers Sparkling Ale, Brooklyn Lager, St Peter’s Bitter – shows care has been lavished on all areas of the drinks cabinet. Resident DJs from Plan B provide the soundtrack at the weekend, when numbers sky- rocket – get here early, and with style, to make it upstairs.

We pondered the moniker. Lofty ambitions? Manhattan loft ambience? Or just upstairs from downstairs? All three, or none. Whatever. This one’s got legs – and very pretty ones they are, too.