The half-built basement during the renovation, a group of people working inside

Our story

There was nowhere
to hold anything.
So we built it.

Six weeks, one basement and dozens of people from the student club who came down after lectures to paint, sand and hammer benches together. Without them this bar would not exist.

How it started

The same wall every time: nowhere to do it

All three of us were active members of ISC, the International Student Club, which later became ESN. We wanted to run more events and kept hitting the same problem — there was nowhere to run them. Finding a room big enough held us back so often that we decided to get our own.

We went after a basement under Masaryk dorm at CTU, the building where most international students live. It took months of negotiating before we got it on a lease. When the keys finally arrived, the place needed rebuilding from scratch.

The empty dark basement before the renovation — This is what we got the keys to. (1/4)

The old bar area with orange walls — This is what we got the keys to. (1/4)

Six weeks

What got done in that time

Walls repaired

Stripped, patched, sanded. The dullest and longest part of it.

Everything repainted

The whole basement, ceiling down to the floor markings.

New lighting

The old lighting made it feel like a cell. We added tens of metres of LED strip and new fittings.

Furniture built by hand

Benches, the bar and some of the tables. Not bought — made.

weeks

348 m²

rebuilt

tables, made here

Before and after

Grab the handle and drag

The main hall after the renovation, blue wash, benches and tables — The main hall

The main hall before the renovation, dark and empty — The main hall

The bar area after, cork world map and clocks showing world times — The bar area and the map wall

The bar area before, orange walls and old furniture — The bar area and the map wall

The bar counter before the renovation — The bar

Who built it

There were not three of us

Six weeks was only possible because of an enormous amount of help from ISC members. They came after lectures, at weekends, wearing bin bags instead of overalls. Some painted, some sanded wood, some cooked for everyone else so the work could carry on.

Most of them still drink here. And on one wall it still says, in handwriting, who painted it.

This is not a bar somebody bought. It is a bar a community built for itself.

Handwriting on a red wall reading painted by Otilia from RO

“painted by Otilia from RO” — a signature that stayed on the wall.

Today

It is not just ours

The space is used by ESN CTU, the other Prague ESN sections and student clubs like BEST and IAESTE. Czech and international students drink here in the evenings, and during the day companies run training in the same room.

ESN CTUESN CUESN UCTESN CZUBESTIAESTE

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