135 Bar & Lounge, formerly the Carpenter’s Arms, to re-open as a speakeasy on Cambridge Heath Road
Like the Carpenter’s Arms before it, the newly refurbished bar will hide a different world behind closed doors.
Dressing up for no reason is a beloved art. In Italy, it even has a name (la passeggiata) and a designated time of day (early evening). With no piazza in sight, where do you go in the East End to look your best? Historically, it’s been places like the Palm Tree and The Carpenter’s Arms.

This January, The Carpenter’s Arms will re-open as 135 Bar & Lounge and it looks like it will continue its legacy of quiet flamboyance.
Inspired by the pub’s deceiving history and his background in luxury drinks, new owner Johan Svensson conceived 135 Bar & Lounge as a speakeasy-style bar with table service, luxe interiors and a special seasonal menu.
The bar is located on the Donegal Estate, on an overlooked stretch of Cambridge Heath Road quietly filling up with interesting new places. Also new to the neighbourhood are The Scarlett Letters, a radical bookshop, and Three Colts Tavern, a boozer with locally brewed beers.

Svensson’s drinks company, Drinksfusion, creates and serves bespoke cocktails for special events. Most recently, they served autumnal drinks at the Royal Academy of Arts, with da Vinci’s The Last Supper as a dramatic backdrop. For 15 years he’s been using the back of The Carpenter’s Arms as a kitchen for the company, getting to know the local flavour in the process.
Svensson’s London accent occasionally slips to reveal the clicking lilt of Swedish origins. He came to the UK from Sundsvall in 1998, following a vague desire to explore. ‘You just want to see the world, and London gave that opportunity,’ he said, ‘London’s got everything. The years flew by.’
His career has been marked by a fixation on the best of the best – from craftspeople to venues and DJs, and of course all the botanicals, syrups, liquors, garnishes, etc that can make up a drink.
‘What I perceive as quality is not necessarily the most expensive,’ Svensson said, ‘Proper craft, I think that’s really interesting.’ For a Paloma in the Royal Academy of Arts’ menu, he found rhubarb grown by candlelight, to make the plant grow skinny and sweet.

While working out the back of The Carpenter’s, Svensson befriended owner Hawkes and pub manager, Tina Lee, who he’s kept on to manage 135 Bar & Lounge. ‘She’s just a great hostess,’ Svensson said, ‘She brings the fantastic sort of Cockney charm that really was part of the old Carpenter’s.’
The Carpenter’s Arms started as a typical ‘flat-roofed pub,’ meaning it was built onto a Council estate with a flat above it, and perceived as ‘rough’. Svensson told The Slice that looks were deceiving – ‘If you came in, everyone was really welcoming.’
The unassuming frontage of this pub disguised a secretly extravagant location for live music and dressing to the nines on weekends, conceived in a 2000 re-opening by previous owner Tony Hawkes. Ladies wore evening dresses, and gentlemen were (three-piece) suited and booted. It was a place where you’d never be caught dead wearing jeans, where even barmaids wore cocktail dresses.

Clientele was varied although largely born in the 40s and 50s – many had lived through the heydays of East End gang wars and were enjoying being past them. Everyone from residents from the nearby estate to Pearly Kings and Queens and monied retired gangsters drank together. The atmosphere leaned into a sense of decadence.
An ageing clientele began to show up less and less as the years rolled on – whether from ill health, death, or just moving to Essex. After Covid, Hawkes who is now nearly 80 decided it was time to retire. Svensson made him an offer for the pub which included the flat above it, moved in upstairs, and began refurbishment.

Today it looks markedly different though retains a sense of continuity. Although more intentional, it still feels lost in time, with a combination of 50s and Art Deco styles somehow reminiscent of a luxury ocean liner. Svensson and his team ripped up the carpets, put in new flooring and dismantled the air purifiers, which were heavy with many years of tar from before the smoking ban.
They re-upholstered and restored the chairs and sofas and gilded the furniture and fireplace in gold. Existing Tiffany lamps are complimented with new mood lighting and the ladies’ bathroom is re-tiled in Fifties’ powder pink. The walls are painted in deep greens from Farrow & Ball, with a contrasting red ceiling and accent wallpaper from Divine Savages.

Perhaps most importantly, the stage has been rebuilt with a new distinctive lighting system. In spirit with the Carpenter’s, 135 Bar & Lounge wants to be a home of live music. ‘Tony said to me, you haven’t got the best location. It’s not a bad location, but you’ve got a great venue,’ Svensson recalls, ‘I think that still applies.’
‘It should be fun to be here,’ Svensson said. ‘It’s about you as a guest having a nice time, not about me doing weird drinks or having a DJ play some obscure music, that we are really cool and you feel odd. I really don’t want that.’ Eventually, Svensson also intends to introduce a membership element.
When 135 Bar & Lounge first opened, Hawkes came to see the new changes, still dressed in his three-piece suit – reportedly, he had a great night. The East End is always reinventing itself, and with that people often mourn the loss of casual, down-to-earth spaces. But The Carpenter’s Arms was never that – it was a place for fantasy, for showing out in your best and letting the night take you somewhere new. As 135 Bar & Lounge, the principle carries.
Don’t miss the Grand Opening weekend of 135 Bar & Lounge, 31st January and 1st of February, from 6 pm til late. Complimentary food platters, and nibbles on arrival. There will also be a live pianist and Saxophone and the resident DJ spinning vinyl till the early hours.

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