THE EAST END - London - page 193

DALSTON
Dalston Kingsland or Dalston Junction Overground. MAP
Dalston has undergone a seismic transformation, and has now overtaken Shoreditch as Lon-
don's hippest, grittiest new quartier. Among the early pioneers was the excellent Vortex Jazz
Club on the frankly sleazy Gillett Square. It was followed by the Arcola Theatre, one of the
city's most dynamic fringe venues, now in a paint factory on Ashwin Street, next door to
avant-garde music venue Café OTO . This trio has been accompanied by bars and clubs
along the high street, all helped by the fact that the area's transport links have vastly im-
proved with the expansion of the Overground.
GEFFRYE MUSEUM
Kingsland Rd Hoxton Overground 020 7739 9893, www.geffrye-museuma.org.uk . Tues-Sun
10am-5pm.Free. MAP
Hoxton's chief attraction is the Geffrye Museum, housed in a grandiose enclave of
eighteenth-century iron-mongers' almshouses. In 1911, at a time when the East End fur-
niture trade was concentrated in the area, the almshouses were converted into a museum for
the “education of craftsmen”. The Geffrye remains, essentially, a furniture museum, with the
almshouses rigged out as period living rooms of the urban middle class, ranging from the
oak-panelled decor of the seventeenth century, through refined Georgian to cluttered
Victorian style. Beyond lies the museum's modern extension, home to a pleasant café/res-
taurant and the excellent twentieth-century section. One of the almshouses has been re-
stored to its original condition and can be visited (second and fourth Tues of the month, first
Sat and first and third Wed; £2.50).