33 Black Friars Lane,
London,
EC4V 6EP
0871 971 3317
The ViewLondon Review
What exactly makes The Evangelist so evangelical then?
Well, a few church-chairs with shelves for hymnbooks in the back, to start with. And, um, some pictures of saints radiating holiness on a wall in the entrance. But do the religious accessories denote any beliefs, creed or mission at the heart of this enterprise? Any desire to convert bar-land into something more purposeful, more meaningful, closer to the sublime?
Once you’ve passed the entrance, and the artistic concessions to Christianity, you enter a room that seems keen on bringing not so much a floaty, heavenly vibe to the masses, but a timber yard-slash-industrial style, which ought not to work at all.
The space feels like a furniture factory of the utmost cool. Large amounts of unvarnished wood, breezeblocks painted white and deep oxblood leather cushions are introduced to one another as if at a surprisingly successful party for eligible furnishing materials.
A couple of nooks and a very opulent private cubbyhole padded out with leather tiles offer extra comfiness for those who don’t enjoy the guilty pleasure of drinking whilst on congregational seating.
A quick word too about the loos – spacious, clean, imaginatively decorated, and generally everything that loos in bars are not. Here, as elsewhere, the scale of the property, the amount of space available to the designers, has worked wonders to lift something that ought to be mediocre just a little above that level.
Everything about the Evangelist is, somehow, more convincing than it should be.
You’d think the décor wouldn’t work – it does; you’d think the half-hearted religious theme was irritating – it somehow isn’t; even the Blackfriars location fails to entirely dampen the spirits.
Despite the predictable semi-credible 90s soundtrack, and the random attachment of a large iron frog to an inappropriate wall, this bar has got away with its potential mistakes in an impressive manner. It may not preach anything in particular, but a charitable god has been smiling on The Evangelist all the same.
The Evangelist has been reviewed by 3 users