Equal Measures: Where Cocktails and Vinyl Find Balance on Hackney Road
By Rafi Mercer
New Listing
Equal Parts is one of Hackney Road’s rising listening sanctuaries — explore more in our London Music Venues guide.
Venue Name: Equal Parts
Address: 213 Hackney Road, London E2 8JL, United Kingdom
Website: equalparts.bar
Phone: N/A
Spotify Profile: N/A
On Hackney Road, a stretch that forever seems in flux — part old East End, part creative frontier — there’s a small room that has decided its purpose is not to be loud, but to be clear. Equal Parts does not announce itself with neon or clamour. It simply opens its doors and invites you to listen.
The name tells you plenty. This is a place built on balance: cocktails and wine, vinyl and conversation, precision and warmth. It stands not as a shout in London’s nightlife but as a steady note, held with intent.
Step inside and the first thing you notice isn’t the bar — it’s the speakers. The system is positioned with care, the kind of care that says someone has sat in each corner of the room, listening, adjusting, listening again. The space itself is compact, seating arranged to make intimacy a feature rather than a limitation. Low light softens the edges; even in a crowd you feel cocooned.
Vinyl is central here. The programming is eclectic, but always intentional. One evening, a selector builds a journey from 1970s Brazilian grooves into cosmic jazz; another, deep house records played at a volume where you catch every nuance of the mix. There’s no sense of DJ-as-celebrity. Equal Parts insists on the music itself, and the crowd responds by leaning in.
Drinks are another act of listening. The cocktail menu reads like a series of small essays — concise, precise, with flavours carefully layered rather than clashing. Natural wines feature prominently, poured with the same respect as the music: enough to refresh, never to overwhelm. It is this measured approach that sets Equal Parts apart from London’s noisier bars. Each detail is in service of an equilibrium.
The room has already earned a reputation for being somewhere to stop the city rushing past. Hackney Road is a corridor of contrasts — traffic streaming, shops opening and closing, murals being painted and repainted. Inside Equal Parts, time seems to slow. You could argue that’s what every good listening bar does: it creates a pause, a moment where music becomes not the soundtrack to your night but the centre of it.
The team behind Equal Parts are not new to hospitality. They know service as choreography, moving with quiet confidence, never intrusive but always present. They are guides, gently steering the night without ever taking it over.
Community is beginning to coalesce here. Word of mouth travels fast in East London, and Equal Parts has become a spot where record collectors, bartenders, and sound seekers intersect. It’s small enough that you recognise faces on a second visit, but dynamic enough that you’re always introduced to something — or someone — new.
Where does it sit in the wider map of London’s listening bars? Somewhere between the polished ambition of Brilliant Corners and the lived-in charm of Paper Dress Vintage. It doesn’t try to compete with the scale of Giant Steps, nor does it lean into the nostalgia of Café 1001. Equal Parts is about proportion — a careful calibration where music and drink carry equal weight, neither eclipsing the other.
It is tempting to describe Equal Parts as modest, but that would miss the point. Modesty implies holding back. Here, every element is fully realised, just not flaunted. The joy lies in its restraint. In an age where venues fight for attention, Equal Parts whispers — and people are listening.
Late in the evening, when the room is full and a record hits the sweet spot between rhythm and mood, you realise what this place achieves. It doesn’t ask you to lose yourself. It asks you to find balance — equal parts of everything that makes a night worthwhile.
Rafi Mercer writes about the spaces where music matters. For more stories from Tracks & Tales, subscribe, or click here to read more.
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