Bars & Pubs

Al's Café Bar

Part bar, part caff, part late-night boozing magnet: everyone round here knows Al's. It's a breakfast-to-bedtime operation, serving a hotchpotch of punters with...

Clerkenwell: 11-13 Exmouth Market, EC1R 4QD

Distance: 0 mls

The Eagle

Gastropub pioneer the Eagle was founded by Michael Belben and David Eyre way back in 1991 - you'll find signed copies of the weighty tome Gastropub Classic (£18) by...

Clerkenwell: 159 Farringdon Road, EC1R 3AL

Distance: 0.1 mls

Medcalf

With rustic breads on shop-window boards where butcher Albert Medcalf's meats used to be displayed, this namesake bar is an exercise in practical good taste. A main...

Clerkenwell: 38-40 Exmouth Market, EC1R 4QE

Distance: 0.1 mls

Easton

A white indoor paint job in January 2008 has sharpened the contrast with the red banquettes, creating a neat decorative backdrop at this solid-quality gastropub....

Clerkenwell: 22 Easton Street, WC1X 0DS

Distance: 0.1 mls

Cafe Kick

Clerkenwell's most likeable bar is this table-football themed gem, now ten years old. The soccer paraphernalia is authentic, retro-cool and mainly Latin (though you'll...

Clerkenwell: 43 Exmouth Market, EC1R 4QL

Distance: 0.1 mls

Coach & Horses

This gastro gem is invariably packed with staff from the nearby Guardian offices, whose splashes decorate the wood-panelled interior. Inside, pub and restaurant areas...

Clerkenwell: 26-28 Ray Street, EC1R 3DJ

Distance: 0.1 mls

Apple Tree

This smart gastropub and post-work glughouse has a superior feel about it, thanks to high ceilings, tall house plants and a quality drinks list. Draught beers include...

Clerkenwell: 45 Mount Pleasant, WC1X 0AE

Distance: 0.1 mls

Betsey Trotwood

It isn't only Clerkenwell's media types who are thankful for the Betsey's long-overdue facelift. The spruce-up extends beyond the fresh flowers, retro lighting and...

Clerkenwell: 56 Farringdon Road, EC1R 3BL

Distance: 0.2 mls

Gunmakers

One of many gastropubs within easy reach of the Guardian offices, Gunmakers is popular with lunching hacks but also operates as an excellent natter-filled bar. Draught...

Clerkenwell: 13 Eyre Street Hill, EC1R 5ET

Distance: 0.2 mls

Potëmkin

Potëmkin ('Potyomkin') is a smart and well-stocked Russian bar with more than 50 varieties of vodka in clear, unusual, berry, fruit, citrus and herb 'n' spice...

Clerkenwell: 144 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DP

Distance: 0.2 mls

Three Kings of Clerkenwell

The Three Kings remains a wonderful place to drink in, despite the apparent disappearance of the equally wonderful black pub cat whose style and attitude fitted so...

Clerkenwell: 7 Clerkenwell Close, EC1R 0DY

Distance: 0.2 mls

The Green

Part-French and part-Spanish in its gastronomic leanings, the street corner Green attracts a discerning professional clientele thanks to the quality of its cuisine and...

Clerkenwell: 29 Clerkenwell Green, EC1R 0DU

Distance: 0.2 mls

Hat & Tun

Martin brothers boozer

Clerkenwell & Farringdon: 3 Hatton Wall, EC1N 8HX

Distance: 0.3 mls

Well

This neat bar-brasserie on St John Street is part of the Martin Brothers' burgeoning empire. The ground floor is mostly taken up by deliberately worn-out wooden dining...

Clerkenwell: 180 St John Street, EC1V 4JY

Distance: 0.3 mls

Peasant

Gin palace turned gastropub, the pleasant Peasant exudes a contemporary tone with its continental draught beers and posters of punk rock stars. Where did they get that...

Clerkenwell: 240 St John Street, EC1V 4PH

Distance: 0.3 mls

Duke

Like the Duke himself (of York that is), the one who marched his men to the top of the hill only to march them down again, this place has its quirks. Seating in the...

Bloomsbury: 7 Roger Street, WC1N 2PB

Distance: 0.3 mls

Match EC1

The stickers on Match EC1's door boast of bar awards won a decade or so ago; and though the world has moved on, the original of three Match bars (there's another on...

Clerkenwell: 45-47 Clerkenwell Road, EC1M 5RS

Distance: 0.3 mls

Filthy McNasty's

You can tell a lot about a bar by its toilet graffiti. To judge from the misspelt poetry and smut scrawled on these walls, Filthy McNasty's is still Islington's most...

Islington: 68 Amwell Street, EC1R 1UU

Distance: 0.4 mls

Jerusalem Tavern

Tilting, creaking and uneven, the cosily tatty JT serves the sought-after ales of Suffolk's St Peter's brewery. Behind the bar, seemingly hidden amid the timber...

Clerkenwell: 55 Britton Street, EC1M 5UQ

Distance: 0.4 mls

Slaughtered Lamb

Friday nights are a scrum in this art gallery turned gastro-ish pub. Just as well it's a big, lively space, the central bar being particularly well positioned for...

Clerkenwell: 34-35 Great Sutton Street, EC1V 0DX

Distance: 0.4 mls

Lamb

Founded in 1729, this Young's pub is the sort of place that makes you misty-eyed for a vanishing era. The Lamb found fame as a theatrical haunt when the A-list...

Bloomsbury: 94 Lamb's Conduit Street, WC1N 3LZ

Distance: 0.4 mls

Perseverance

Occupying a large corner site near Great Ormond Street hospital, this is a popular spot for medics seeking to soothe the stresses of their jobs. A recent refurb put...

Bloomsbury: 63 Lamb's Conduit Street, WC1N 3NB

Distance: 0.4 mls

Vats Wine Bar & Restaurant

A proper, old-fashioned wine bar, Vats is a regular lunchtime haunt for Lincoln’s Inn barristers and various other characters in the neighbourhood. The backroom...

Bloomsbury: 51 Lamb’s Conduit Street, WC1N 3NB

Distance: 0.4 mls

Puncheon (branch of Davy's)

Farringdon: Unit 5, Cowcross Place, Cowcross Street, EC1M 6DQ

Distance: 0.4 mls

Fabric

In Fabric's very early days, one promoter suggested that the new venue would become a latter-day Haçienda. Nine years on, the prophecy has come true: you wouldn't be...

Clerkenwell: 77A Charterhouse Street, EC1M 3HN

Distance: 0.4 mls

Cittie of Yorke

It's big, it's beery, but above all it's brown: the cleaners here must get through a month's worth of furniture polish in one night. There's a cosy front area, a...

Holborn: 22 High Holborn, WC1V 6BN

Distance: 0.5 mls

Hat & Feathers

Traffic roared around this forgotten building for years, but only recently did anyone care enough to put this two-floor bar and restaurant in it, magnificent yellow...

Clerkenwell: 2 Clerkenwell Road, EC1M 5PQ

Distance: 0.5 mls

Old Red Lion

Below the fringe theatre of the same name sits this old-school boozer. There's an etched glass partition dividing the saloon from the public bar, and an impressive...

Islington: 418 St John Street, EC1V 4NJ

Distance: 0.5 mls

Ye Olde Mitre Tavern

Consistently voted one of the best pubs in London by self-proclaimed experts on internet forums - and you'd have to say they've got this one spot on. Its secluded...

Holborn: 1 Ely Court, Ely Place side of 8 Hatton Garden, EC1N 6SJ

Distance: 0.5 mls