A Hackney Road cocktail and whisky bar hidden behind a Mac repair shop, relaunched with a tighter spirits programme.
The Natural Philosopher sits on Hackney Road behind the shopfront of MacSmiths, a working Mac and iPhone repair shop. Push past the laptops on the counter and a hidden door drops into a low-ceilinged, candlelit basement that has run as a foraged-cocktail and whisky speakeasy since 2014. Time Out London calls the entrance "the most committed bit of theatre in the East London cocktail scene," and the bar earned a place on the Top 50 Cocktail Bars UK list under previous owner Josh Powell.
Powell closed the bar on 31 August 2025 after eleven and a half years, citing the cost of living pressure on independent hospitality, as reported by Class Magazine. The space reopened on 15 October 2025 under Allison Crawbuck and Rhys Everett, the duo behind The Absinthe Parlour at The Last Tuesday Society and Devil's Botany Distillery in Hackney Wick. The new programme keeps the foraged-cocktail identity but rebuilds around a curated 24-bottle whisky list and weekly tasting nights. The right visitor wants a small, quiet, spirits-led room with bartender conversation. The wrong visitor wants a buzzy weekend cocktail bar with bottle service.
The street-level shopfront still functions as a Mac repair counter during the day. Behind it, a small hidden door opens onto wooden stairs down into a basement that Secret London described as "a candlelit alchemist's study with a bar in it." Apothecary jars of dried herbs, foraged ingredients in glass bottles, and a low timber ceiling. Around 30 covers across two connected rooms; the back room is the quieter seat and the one regulars on r/london consistently flag for couples.
Order from the foraged-seasonal cocktail menu, which rotates by quarter and uses herbs and botanicals gathered in and around east London. The house Foraged Old Fashioned (£15) is the consistent recommendation on DesignMyNight. Under the new ownership, the whisky programme is the headline addition: 24 bottles, with a three-pour tasting flight at £28 and weekly Thursday tastings led by Crawbuck or Everett.
Skip ordering off-menu — the strength of the bar is the bartender working through the seasonal list with you. Wine and beer are present but functional; this is a spirits room. Allow time, the cocktails are built slowly.
Wednesday and Thursday draw a local Hackney and Bethnal Green crowd in for the slower, lower-volume shifts. Friday and Saturday tilt towards date pairs and small groups, and the room fills early; Time Out's East London bar guide flags it specifically for "a date that needs to impress without showing off." The relaunched Thursday whisky-tasting nights have pulled an industry crowd back in, per Class Magazine's November 2025 relaunch coverage.