A club that is just my cup of T

For five fabulous years T Bar was known for its blinding free club nights. The Shoreditch nightspot, named for its original location in an old tea warehouse on Shoreditch High Street, had a queue snaking round the block every weekend. It was the scene of many an eventful night out for me and my friends, largely because there was generally less posing and more pulling going on than you find in other east London clubs.

The club closed last December, to much wailing and gnashing of teeth from its legions of fashionable fans. But something has been brewing at T Bar HQ and with a new venue in Aldgate, T Bar is back — bigger and better than ever.

We decided to venture down on a Sunday evening to investigate. Yes, a Sunday evening. Friday and Saturday nights were hugely popular, but Sunday parties were one of the most famous facets of T Bar.

Initially it was like 28 Days Later. The Square Mile is quiet enough anyway on a weekend, but the good weather meant everyone was chilling in beer gardens when we arrived at 8.30pm. So we headed to Spitalfields for a few beers before returning at 10.15pm — and luckily it was a different story.

Sunday nights are run by the Dig Your Own Rave collective with DJs including Dave Congreve and Ben Bryant, and the place was filling up with punters high on sunshine, cider and the fact that none of them had to pay a penny to get in.

We were pleasantly surprised that T Bar's reputation for underground minimalism wasn't dulling the atmosphere — I had feared it might be full of slack-jawed casualties of the previous night's excesses, still going for it. But no, people were fresh-faced and fun-filled.

The crowd was a good mix of young and thirtysomething hipsters and party types and students out past their bedtime, and the atmosphere was so friendly that it felt more like Ibiza than London.

The main room works brilliantly — the sound system is crisp and loud, and the bar at the back is spacious.

It's sparsely decorated but functional and there's a calmer upper floor bar away from the dancefloor where you can sit down and relax with a beer. We settled back with a round of spirits — all served as doubles, meaning asking for a gin and tonic will set you back £7 — and I chatted to Michael Moxey, a merry Australian who has just moved to London.

"I came to the launch night and it was 70 per cent girls," he said. "And they were all hot." It's certainly an unusual ratio for fashionable east London clubs... and one us boys find appealing.