Libreria to mark Night Tube with all-night event

Libreria bookshop in East London is holding an all-night event to mark the launch of London’s Night Tube.

The event, this Friday (19th August), will see the bookshop open between 8pm and 8am, holding readings, serving whiskey, playing music, film and featuring “surprise happenings”.

Author Mark Forsyth will speak to guests, along with science writer Aarathi Prasad, while the co-founder of creative workspace Second Home, which owns Libreria, Rohan Silva, and Shuffle Festival co-founder Kate Mactiernan, will also be in attendance.

The line-up includes live music from Andy Button and his band and 8pm, a DJ set at 9pm, “Spitalfields tales” at 10pm, a night whiskey cap at 11pm, “dialogue on drunkenness” from Forsyth, author of The Etymologicon (Icon Books) at midnight, followed by the "Insomniacs' Philosophy Club" at 1am, Prasad speaking on "night-time medical cures" at 2am and a film screening of Martin Scorsese's film "After Hours" at 3am. The event will be capped off with “bagels and poetry” at 6am, the organisers said.

The night will be free of charge, including the whiskey.

Bookseller Jess Fogarty said: "Second Home is open for 24 hours a day and we all believe the launch of the Night Tube is great and will deliver a big boost to London's creative scene. So what better way to celebrate it than have the bookshop open all night holding creative events?"

Libreria was opened in Hanbury Street in February, to great fanfare, inspired by Jorge Luis Borges’ short story “The Library of Babel” and designed by SelgasCano, the same Spanish company that created Second Home.

It is run by Paddy Butler and Fogarty after Sally Davies, the former director, left in June.

The Central and Victoria tube lines will start running through the night from this Friday, on Fridays and Saturdays, with the Piccadilly, Jubilee and Northern lines following in the autumn.

The service was due to start last September but was delayed due to disputes with unions.