01
The cloth comes first
Every table is brushed, ironed and re-spotted between sessions, and re-clothed once a year. A bad surface ruins a good game — so ours never get the chance.
Our story
One restored table.
One restored table.
A room that wouldn't stay quiet.
We didn't set out to open a bar. We set out to save a snooker table — and ended up building the club we always wished Islington had.
Since 2019
The basement on Berners Yard
In 2019 our founder, a frame-a-night regular for fifteen years, found a Burroughes & Watts table going to skip behind a shuttered working men's club off Upper Street. It was 1924, warped at one rail, and beautiful. He bought it for the price of the slate.
Restoring it took eleven months and a re-clothing in proper tournament baize. By the time it was level, the idea had grown legs: a room where that table could live, with five more like it, a long bar, and the kind of low light that makes a quiet game feel like an occasion.
The Baize Room opened in a converted print-works basement in 2020. We kept the original table — it's the one in the private frame room — and we kept the principle: cue sport done properly, with a drink worth lingering over, and not a fruit machine in sight.
What we hold to
Three rules of the room
02
Quiet is a feature
No fruit machines, no shouting screens, no playlist on shuffle. Just the click of the balls, low conversation and a bar that respects a frame in progress.
03
Everyone gets a cue
Hustler or first-timer, we'll set you up and leave you to it. Coaching when you want it, never a lecture when you don't. The game belongs to everyone here.
Behind the bar & the baize
The people who keep it level
JC
James Caldwell
Founder & Custodian
Saved Table No.1, levelled it himself, and still plays the closing frame most Fridays. Believes a club is a feeling before it's a business.
NA
Nadia Amrani
Head Coach, WPBSA
Former county champion and a WPBSA Level 2 coach. Has a gift for unpicking a wonky bridge in ten minutes and rebuilding a player's confidence in one lesson.
TO
Theo Okonkwo
Head Bartender
Built the 42-strong cocktail list and the 11 house originals. Names every drink after a famous break. Will absolutely talk you through the Maximum.
SF
Sofia Ferreira
Club Manager
Runs the league, the bookings and the Frame Club. Knows every regular's table preference and exactly how they take their nightcap.
Credentials & affiliations
Recognised, registered, regulated
WPBSA-affiliated venue
EBSA standards member
Personal Licence holders
Islington 5★ Food Hygiene
Best Bar None accredited
Come and see for yourself
The first frame's on us to talk about.
Drop in for a table, book a lesson with Nadia, or let Theo make you something. The basement door is the green one — you'll know it.