Roasting Shed, Hackney Wick

Hackney Bridge, Unit 2 Echo Building, E Bay Ln, London E15 2SJ
https://theroastingshed.com/
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Hackney is hardly short of decent coffee shops, it is, after all, the punchline to many jokes, the origin of the hipster stereotype, and the archetype for gentrification in London.

However, this end of Hackney Wick is more closely associated with bars and breweries, just the other side of the Olympic Park and by the canal where drinkers can revel in the summer sun. I arrive here in search of an art-come-music-exhibition but turn up early and am refused access for another half an hour or so. Retracing my footsteps back along the canal, I climb a flight of stairs to hit the first coffee shop I find.

Roasting Shed has a couple of spots in London, here and Islington, the two prime places for middle class hipsters who indulge in caffeine dreams and they’ve managed to capture me, so the positioning obviously works.
This tiny corner kiosk pumps out prime coffee, delightfully fudgey in its sweet yet rounded profile. I laze on a bench outside, soaking up the sunshine and lolling about as cyclists and dog walkers trot by and the queue out the door starts to build. 

It seems evident that this is a popular spot and it’s understandable why. Right by the river, it has a cosy charm that carries it forth alongside excellent coffee so that it can easily hold its own in the swathes of cafe amongst the area.