"The. Royal. Oak. The de facto living room of all the inner-Hackney twenty-somethings who can’t hang out at home because there’s a bunk bed in the kitchen, The Oak is legendary. Bentwood chairs, parquet flooring and panelled walls recall a bygone era, as does the disorienting sensation of stumbling out at closing time into the eerily quiet, cobbled streets around Columbia Road." - Adam Coghlan, James Hansen
