Shunt

I have to tell you about this place that we went last night. It was called Shunt. Sort of like saying shouldn’t really quickly. It was a theatre/bar inside the London Bridge tube station. I wish I had pictures because I am not sure if you will get the full sense of what it was like without them.

So once you come up the elevator and leave the swipe-out station, you turn to your right and there is this really eerie-looking brick wall that borders and equally eerie narrow doorway. I was reminded slightly of Alice in Wonderland where she goes through the small door while following the Mad Hatter. And the place had the same type of goes-on-forever feel. As soon as you enter the dark narrow entrance, a cloud of fog hits your face. Keep in mind that this is all underground. I think it was built in what used to be an old part of the tube station. The place was very darkly lit and they purposely played creepy music and had lights behind all these oddly shaped structures to create ominous shadows. Everyone in my group, including me, was a little scared so walking through we clutched each other like Dorothy, the Tin man, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion walking through the forest. We walked back nearly 200 yards.

At the end of this underground tunnel was a theater. It was well let and had several stadium seats facing the stage. The stage was wet (it apparently had to do with the show that we had just missed). Then we turned right and found the most spacious (albeit underground) bar I have ever laid eyes on. The whole place felt so cavernous. Tables were quite far away from one another. Even if it was crowded (which it was mildly so) you could go the entire night without bumping into another person. It felt entirely surreal.

Although we didn’t witness any, the place is known for spontaneous performances. There certainly was plenty of space for it. I’m trying to think of a good comparison so you can really picture what this place looked like. I guess it sort of reminded me of Grand Central Station if there were no outlet to the outside. It was almost that spacious and it had a roof curved in a similar way.

The other thing about this place was that it had coed bathrooms. Individual stalls made it pretty comfortable, but this was my first experience with this type of restroom. Nothing embarrassing to report about it although my roommate said when he walked out of the stall and saw a girl his immediate reaction was “oh man I just peed in the lady’s room.”

So that’s it. Just wanted to tell you about Shunts because it is like no place I have ever been to.

Oh, and apparently people have been having troubling commenting because after a few times using a nickname, blogspot wants you to register that nickname. You don’t have to register (although if you want to you can). Instead you can just publish an anonymous comment and sign it at the end. But make sure to sign it because I won’t respond to an anonymous comment. With that said:

Comments Welcome,

Andrew