Our selection of the best Hackney cocktail bars

There’s something about top-quality cocktail bars with impeccable hi-fi sound systems we’re just drawn to.

Behind This Wall can be found in a basement beneath the Narrow Way in Hackney Central. It’s relaxed, and low-key, and features a carefully constructed sound system that seeks to emulate the Japanese listening bars so fabled by audiophiles.

What makes this Hackney cocktail bar stand out is the lack of a menu – guests are asked their preferred base spirit and cocktail style and BTW’s bartenders then curate cocktails. When in doubt, you can always order classics and the bar also offers a weekly special.

Behind This Wall's interior is minimalist Scandi/Japanese in style. The place doesn’t need much decor: it only cares about the drinks and the tunes – as do we.

The Dalston area of Hackney is known more for its dives and clubs but Three Sheets is a little hole-in-the-wall cocktail bar on Kingsland Road that breaks from that stereotype.

This Hackney cocktail bar has made it onto our list by virtue of its absolute bangin’ cocktail menu. There’s something to be said for doing simple things perfectly.

Reservations are a must as this place is so tiny, but its green walls and white marble bar always feel welcoming when you step inside for a classic cocktail. We’ve said it before and we’re saying it again: it’s the kind of place we like to start our night in.

The Last Tuesday Society is one of the few places in London where you can enjoy absinthe served in the traditional way: an antiquated contraption of a fountain that slowly drips water onto a cube of sugar suspended over a glass of absinthe.

If this sounds too strong, never fear! You can also enjoy an absinthe high ball or a cocktail, and the bar serves great cocktails for those people who aren’t into the green stuff.

The cocktail bar-cum-absinthe-parlour is gloriously Victorian gothic and macabre. In fact, located in the basement is the Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, a strange little place and collection of the weird and the wonderful and so, so worth a visit – especially after a couple of drinks.

Ah, basements and cocktail bars, they’re basically synonymous. The Natural Philosopher – found through an "Apple repair" shop – has a decorated basement cocktail bar with an eclectic collection of antiques in a way that only an eccentric Victorian with a passion for curiosity cabinets could.

The cocktail menu focuses on foraged ingredients from eight different terrains of the UK – hence the reason behind its name. This dedication to quality ingredients and its passion for cocktails makes the Natural Philosopher a unique cocktail bar; there’s no minimalism and frozen margs here, just top-class cocktails and potted plants in Victorian digs.

The Hackney nay-sayers will roll their eyes at the fact that this cocktail bar is easy to miss because its facade is so covered in graffiti – but truthfully, it’s one of the things we like about it, you have to really know your cocktail bars to know it’s there.

We keep sneaking this one onto our Hackney lists even though it’s technically located where Mare Street turns into Cambridge Heath Road. If you’re already on Mare Street and looking for a cocktail bar, there’s no reason you shouldn’t head to Satan’s Whiskers – it has been on lists for the world’s best cocktail bars with good reason.

Inside, you find a relaxed and laid-back atmosphere soundtracked by hip-hop, and world-class cocktails, of course. You can order classic cocktails here, but the stand out for us is the bar’s daily changing cocktail menu. It's been on a couple of our lists for good reason, one you should find out for yourself.

It’s not every day you find a cocktail bar that’s as comfortable as your living room. Off Broadway is hard to miss: it occupies the corner of Broadway and Dericote Street; if you’ve ever visited Broadway Market, you’ve walked past it. You should have gone inside.

The atmosphere is so relaxed you could easily (dangerously) spend an afternoon and evening in the place. Not surprisingly, the menu focuses on American cocktails and beers – the drinks are lovingly made, unpretentious, and don’t make you feel guilty when you’ve had not one, not two, but several.

This Hackney cocktail bar is well-known and well-loved, not just for its location, cocktails, and live music, but for its kitty regulars – be prepared to see a cat try and drink your cocktail or perched at a window watching the world pass by. As we said, it's as relaxed as your living room.

Two More Years, located on the River Lea in Hackney Wick, has made its way onto our list for several good reasons.

First, the location. The inside is spacious and industrial – a fairly standard Hackney interior but it's the deck for a beer garden that we really love. Have you ever sipped a blood orange margarita or a negroni outside while overlooking the river? Exactly.

Second, it’s the kind of place we go for a couple of cocktails and then hit the dance floor. They’ve got DJ sets every weekend. Lastly, you can find us on Saturdays, negroni or margarita in hand, for the late ‘80s and ‘90s House and Disco night. We lied.

Fontaine’s, the West Hackney cocktail bar whose name perfectly matches its Art Deco styling and offering of classic cocktails. True to its name and aesthetic, Fontaine’s is known and loved for its cabaret nights and film nights screening old Hollywood movies.

Complete with little cocktail lamps on little cocktail tables, kitschy armchairs and sofas, Fontaine’s is the kind of place where you sip on a Manhattan or Dirty Martini with extra olives.

Post-dinner drinks, cabaret, film night, or booked out entirely for a special occasion (it has a capacity of 150 people), Fontaine’s is an unapologetically retro cocktail bar and entertainment venue. We respect its love for classic cocktails and old movies.

A cocktail bar it may be, but Corrochio’s Cantina is a Dalston dive through and through. A few of you may know it by its former name, Ruby’s, but it’s Corrochio’s Cantina now, and it’s our top pick for a late-night cocktail bar in Dalston.

The owners are the same, the great cocktails are the same, and even the DJs who play at weekends are the same. The underground bar traded its shabby kitsch Americana decor for shabby kitsch Latin decor, and gave its cocktail menu a tequila and mezcal flavour with a healthy dose of tajín – and we love it.

This is definitely the kind of place you end up in late at night when you really don’t need anymore to drink but you just can’t resist telling the bartender you’d like a Cornholio while doing your best not to say it in a Beevis & Butt-head voice – and we love it.

With a fondness for neon signs, Bar 161 could easily be the location of a scene in an A24 film. Throw in a couple of Persian rugs and candle-lit tables and you have yourself a verified Hackney cocktail bar.

Bar 161 is our top pick for a signature cocktail menu, and if we could only recommend one to you it would be the Rising Sun Sour – a lovely little concoction of bourbon, yuzu saké, fresh lemon & lime juice, sugar syrup, and orange bitters all shaken up into zingy goodness that goes down way too easily.

Bar 161 also offers a classic cocktail menu alongside the signature menu. And when you’ve had one too many it also has a karaoke room. It’s £10 per person per hour with a minimum of five people. Just get your friends well and truly drunk – convincing them to do karaoke will be much easier then.