Having lived in East London for six years, I can’t think of a more vivid and evocative snapshot of millennial life than Ziferblat. In this utopian Shoreditch cafe* everything is free apart from time. De-consuming is the future and there is no better place to start than a reclaimed flat in Old Street.
You can bring your own sandwiches or last night’s pasta, enter the kitchen and drink unlimited cups of tea or coffee. The Russian coffeehouse has a rickety old piano, chess set and bookshelves full of donated literature. It’s a place for sharing just like you do online. Lest we forget it has free Wi-Fi on tap.
Costing only 5p a minute, £3.00 an hour, you receive a miniature clock on arrival and fill your name and time on a card. Essentially it’s a local community centre where people come to chat, make friends and pass away a lazy Sunday IRL.
With its flowery wallpaper and random assortment of 20th century chairs, Ziferblat is like a romantic cousin of the sixties. Did twentysomethings in the 1960s hanker for bygone eras too? Or did they live in the glorious present like the startup man wired into his Macbook Pro sitting next to me.
Skinny with a meticulously trimmed beard and slim-fit cream jumper, the angry freelancer clearly means business. I do my best not to disturb him even though I needn’t worry. His headphones are proving so absorbing I barely register a wink of indignation.
The bearded entrepreneur is writing about music’s future on Google Drive, while everyone else is listening to the vinyl crackle of Neil Young. He may look incongruously focused but he captures the essence of Shoreditch’s business drive.
For all its charm and utopian spirit don’t expect to find anything new at this co-working place. It’s the twenty-first century and everything has been done already. What you should be asking is whether Ziferblat is more socially engaging than what has gone on before?
I can spend hours here and unlike in Starbucks you end striking up conversations with people sitting next to you. It’s the living room I cannot afford to have.
Living in a glorified world of connectivity, the pay-for-your-time movement is an opportunity to join a new world order. We must stop buying things we don’t need. And remember you have a right to be here, but at some point you must leave. Just make sure you stay long enough to have a good time.
Ziferblat
388 Old Street,
London,
E1 6JE
