This ought to get everyone’s stamp of approval – Cahoots Postal Office has opened in Borough Yards, and it’s absolutely first class.
This is only the third Cahoots location, after their original whimsically vintage Underground station & its follow up the Ticketing Hall. Both apply wholesomely rose-tinted sentimentality to the otherwise not-exactly-awesome 1940s via the use of cocktails, music, and highly detailed interiors. And that formula has been a roaring success.
Johnny Stephens Photography
This latest outpost is in the fancy new Borough Yards development, housed in a railway arch that’s been transformed into a post-war time capsule. Assuming you have a booking (or some luck & a pleasant demeanour) the eminently polite bouncer will let you into their speakeasy-style entryway, where a teeny bit of role-playing sets the tone for the experience. Here a ‘postal worker’ will give you a wink and ask about the ‘parcel’ you were keen on picking up, before a telephone rings for you to answer. You’ll then get directions to the concealed door behind the post-boxes.
Stepping inside, it’s genuinely rather impressive. There’s an insane level of detail going on on the two-floor space, which features everything from repurposed mail sack chairs to a ancient telephone switchboard (with equally ancient gossip being played for anyone who cares to listen), an animatronic cat, a few airmail freight crates (one of which says ‘live animal’ and actually jostles every now and then), and a mechanical tangle of pneumatic tubes snaking about the place.
Those tubes run from the bar via a convoluted route to a trio of drop points, and if you order from their special menu, you can actually get a cocktail satisfyingly delivered via tube, with a delivery warning played out over the speakers and everything. It’s glorious. There are only three pipe-mailed cocktails available at the moment – a bright blue, tequila-loaded This Way Up; a gin-fizz-esque Signed, Sealed & Delivered; and the floral Par Avion, made with elderflower liqueur.
Of course there are plenty more drinks available via the ground-based transportation of the waiting staff, and served up in all manner of chintzy china, faux antique drinking vessels, and nifty booze-dispensing gadgets. It’s almost tricky to find something in a simple glass. But that’s half the fun of coming to a place like this.
Speaking of which, they also have plans for regular live music nights, with an appropriately old fashioned jitterbugging, swing-dancing band taking the mic. All told, the Postal Office makes a promise…
…and it delivers.
NOTE: Cahoots Postal Office is open now, seven days a week. You can find out more and make a booking at the Cahoots website.
Cahoots Postal Office | 18 Stoney St, SE1 9AD
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