Oslo in Hackney

All photography by Emily Nicholson, Dursk

On Wednesday night myself and the other half Nik, travelled down to London for the long awaited Amara Interior Blog Awards, held at the stunning Rosewood Hotel, Holborn. The event was beautiful, filled with cheers and applauds, good conversation and of course, cocktails-a-plenty. Unfortunately I didn't make the cut, but being part of such a prestigious event and alongside creatives that I have admired for quite some time, was more than I ever could've hoped for since starting out only 3 months ago.

After checking out of our Air bnb, just a stone's throw away from where I used to live near Old Street, we were set for a day of exploring. Both feeling in a very fragile state, we felt that an undemanding day in Hackney was on the cards, doing the usual coffee and culture trip. By the end of the day we were wiped out and with a burger firmly on the brain we found Oslo, a Nordic bar and eatery restored from an old train station building, located just on the corner of Hackney Central.

Everything inside is relaxed, dim lit and exactly what you need when you're feeling a little worse for wear. The traditional charm of this East London building has been revamped with contemporary Norwegian finishing touches, creating a new aesthetic to this historic place. For example, the walls are a combination of exposed brick and indigo fades, finished with unique black and white framed illustrations. Huge indoor arches are accompanied by bellowing draped light fixtures with a lovely mauve faded effect, an obvious reflective feature of the beautiful pink tinted lilies sitting on every table. A glass jar dispenser takes pride of place at the end of the bar filled with icy, cucumber ribboned water. It was official, we were in the perfect sanctuary to cure this hangover. And the burger that we so desperately craved couldn't have been better; we went for the very fresh, pulled pork burger with garlic aioli - best choice ever. We talked, chilled, wound down for about 2 hours in Oslo, it was so easy to become part of the furniture - which by the way was all very Scandi and spindly. Just perfect.