Keeping abreast of this bar’s chameleon-like changes has been a full-time job. Earlier incarnations include Common and Modern Love, and prior to that… we forget. So will this dinky duplex – now owned by the local group who also run Hoxton Seven, Cargo, The Redchurch and The Shoreditch – last the course in its new guise? Cirque’s theme is self-evident, its lurid decor arresting: a bright backdrop of vintage circus posters, harlequin diamond wallpaper, carnival masks, Balinese parasols and marionettes, with a PG Tips chimp as ringmaster. Sit on an outsized Rubik’s cube stool and drink Merlot (£14.50), Brahma or Beck’s – or classic and tiki-style cocktails such as Aviation, Bramble, Zombie, Happy Buddha and Lovebird (Russian Standard vodka, peach schnapps, pineapple juice and blue Curaçao). Clowning around is encouraged by the offer of two for £10 cocktails (as late as 10pm), DJ sets (later in the week), shots, bombs and party bowls.