For an evening of casual drinks, vinyl listening and perhaps a little dancing, Upstairs at Hausu is a new destination near London's Peckham Rye station for those seeking hi-fidelity sound and a full bar open until midnight.
Named after the 1977 Japanese cult horror film Hausu, the listening bar sits above Hausu restaurant, which co-founders Holly Middleton-Joseph, her brother Tom Middleton-Joseph and business partner Christian Williams opened in October 2024.
Upstairs at Hausu, London
The new bar was designed in-house by designer Eva Gold. As the project was self-funded, everything was crafted collaboratively by the team in a DIY spirit. The palette is rich and decadent, layered in chocolate-cherry hues with light timber accents. The dimly-lit bar offers a warm ambience, with movable curtains that allow the space to shift between intimate and open. After climbing the stairs and encountering the soft drapery and low lighting, you are greeted by an intriguing sense of the unknown.
READ: Why are so many rooms covered in curtains?
‘My starting point was the Velvet and Silk Café by Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich, particularly their use of layered textiles to create temporary, movable room dividers,’ explains Gold. ‘As my research developed, I kept returning to the image of David Lynch’s Red Room in Twin Peaks. Curtains became a central motif – suggesting concealment, something obscured and possibly revealed. For me, that tension feels inherently tied to desire.’
The design draws on elements of Gold’s own sculptural practice, which explores how materiality is intertwined with the body: ‘Working on a space like this was very different from creating an installation or sculpture in a gallery context, but I used many of the same processes. I always work in a very hands-on way, so this was a continuation of that approach – both functional and tactile.’
While listening to a collection of jazz and post-punk records, or catching one of the rotating DJ programmes, tuck into a selection of bar snacks that echo Italian influences: oysters with house Tabasco, Toad Bakery bread with smoked butter, olives, marinated peppers and boquerones. The drinks menu is equally abundant, offering playful takes on classics, including a salted Iberiko tomato Martini, a blood orange Sidecar with fig foam, a gin, kiwi and coriander soda and a mezcal sesame Old Fashioned.
When grabbing a table, Gold recommends sitting on the right-hand side, tucked behind a translucent red curtain. ‘It feels like a private corner, yet you’re actually in the middle of the room; visible, but obscured. There’s a tension in that which, for me, is undeniably sexy.’
Upstairs at Hausu is located at 11a Station Wy, London SE15 4RX, United Kingdom