The Social

The Social’s ground-floor bar, all battered booths & punky nonchalance, recalls a 1970s student union bar, & a bottle of Tsingtao, Le Coq or a half of San Miguel (£1.50) certainly won’t blow any rent owed on end-of-the-tube-line bedsits. Of course, the artfully dishevelled scruffs that you see noshing square pies & sausage sarnies are quite likely to be six-figure-salary new media entrepreneurs, stylists, or guitarists in hot indie bands. Dirty pretty things assemble downstairs in a concrete bunker & groove to DJs who play the sort of tracks Xfm hasn’t yet added to its playlist. It’s hip, hot & arty, & with house wine at £11.50, the heavenly Social is still one of Fitzrovia’s most convivial hangouts.