Below and Hidden, 5th November

Below and Hidden is the new mini club from Bourne & Hollingsworth that feels like your partying in someone’s house – except that the walls are all sparkly and awesome. It’s quite a contrast to the almost prim and proper upstairs, it most definitely designed as a den of iniquity with nights not even starting until a bit later in the evening and going on until 2 am. It definitely had the feel of an Arabian parlour, though the decor was actually very Medieval. We were treated to a condensed version of what they wanted the place to be like.

So, lights were fairly low in the first place, but dipped even further when the LEDs came on and the disco was ramped up. They had a short cocktail list, and plan to change the specials on offer on a monthly basis. Of course we had to try almost all of them and the one I was most pleasantly surprised by was the Peacock Suite. I normally avoid lavender but here it was used very judiciously. All the ingredients (kaffir lime, white wine and gin as well) combined to be more than the sum of their parts – it was hard to pick out the individual tastes but they melded together to create something incredibly pleasing on the tongue. And I loved the peacock feather garnish!

To be fair, every cocktail was a winner though. The Diamond days, mixing tequila with vermouths and fortified wine was quite a knockout. 

I attended their launch and hadn’t realized food would be on offer so we had stuffed ourselves with truffled chips at The Bowler beforehand. But the food they provided looked so good we managed to squeeze in some of that as well. 

As the night wore on the party vibes didn’t flag and by 11 pm everyone still there was up and dancing. I loved the intimate feel of this place. If you went along you could quickly make friends with everyone in the room and it would also be just the right size for hiring out for an occasion (if they do that). It also feels like a secret – when we left and emerged into the ordinary upstairs and ended up chatting to people, they were like ‘where have you even come from’, we just suddenly seemed to appear from nowhere. And I enjoyed that too.