All bars & pubs, sorted alphabetically
As French as its name and namesake restaurant upstairs, the cosy C des A is more basement bar than café, but stylish for all that. A buzzy bunch of shoppers and...
Covent Garden: 11-14 Hanover Place, WC2E 9JP
2 course fixed price menu (Early Dinner) for £14.50This weekday-only converted warehouse echoes the working environment with its bare bricks, low industrial lights and train rattle from the nearby Thameslink platforms;...
King's Cross: 6 St Chad's Place, WC1X 9HH
They've ditched the 'Neighbourhood' tag - this W10 club is now known merely by the first line of its address - and we're waiting to see what the other changes will be....
Ladbroke Grove: 12 Acklam Road, W10 5QZ
Strange that this most traditional of London shops should have decided to import a flavour of the New World: its revamp has created a bar that wouldn't be out of place...
Piccadilly: Fortnum & Mason, 181 Piccadilly, W1J 9FA
Located just around the corner from the Royal Albert Hall, this annexe of the Gore Hotel draws an eclectic mix of concert-goers, businessmen and local Imperial College...
South Kensington: The Gore Hotel, 190 Queensgate, SW7 5EX
It’s out with the Tiffany blue and in with a new (slightly less appealing) brown and gold scheme. And where once there were tapas to go with your tom collins,...
Islington: 25 Canonbury Lane, N1 2AS
A haven for the area's cutting-edge crowd for more than ten years, this three-floored, no-frills party space has found its feet again thanks to quality house nights...
Shoreditch: 333 Old Street, EC1V 9LE
There are few more indulgent pleasures than whiling away a couple of hours in a pub with a good book. But what about drinking in a bookshop? Set on the fifth floor of...
St James's: 5th floor, Waterstone's, 203-206 Piccadilly, W1J 9HA
There's plenty to be grateful for here, with a great courtyard that wraps right around the back, a large balcony terrace, a 'Pink' bar crammed full of welcoming sofas,...
Shoreditch: 150 Brick Lane, E1 6QL
IceBar, a collaboration between Absolut and the designers at Ice Hotel, is probably not a place at which to settle in for a long night's drinking: that's because the...
Mayfair: 29-33 Heddon Street, W1B 4BN
From the outside, the Cod appears to be a friendly old boozer, but inside the look has been cleaned up with cream walls, spot lighting and varnished pine furniture,...
South Kensington: 17 Mossop Street, SW3 2LY
In Soho's trendier gay bars, cruising takes second place to posing. Not so at the Admiral Duncan, which still flies the rainbow flag of unashamed Friday night fun....
Soho: 54 Old Compton Street, W1D 4UB
The current revival in live music has done nothing but benefit the honest-to-goodness Ain't Nothin' But... The Blues bar. As basic as the similarly titled 78 by...
Soho: 20 Kingly Street, W1B 5PZ
Just off the bustle and tat of Shaftesbury Avenue, this airy cocoon - sister venture to the End - claims to have been London's original DJ bar, and it's still grooving...
Bloomsbury: 18 West Central Street, WC1A 1JJ
Downstairs from the Red Fort Indian restaurant of some renown, the equally superior Akbar basement cocktail lounge also sources its ingredients from far and wide. The...
Soho: 77 Dean Street, W1D 3SH
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
Impressively located slap on Trafalgar Square, Albannach (as opposed to 'sassanach') specialises in Scotch whiskies and cocktails thereof. A map in the menu explains...
Trafalgar Square: 66 Trafalgar Square, WC2N 5DS
The former Blue Coat Boy was rebuilt in ornate Victorian style in the mid-19th century, its parliamentary connections illustrated by the portraits of past PMs up the...
Victoria: 52 Victoria Street, SW1H 0NP
At the upper end of Upper Street, the Albert & Pearl occupies the site previously home to the Medicine Bar, and is owned by the same folk as the Old Queen’s Head on...
Islington: 181 Upper St, N1 1RQ
In business over 20 years, Albertine nevertheless keeps up with market trends, recently installing shiny pine shelving to show off bottles to take away at lower...
Shepherd's Bush: 1 Wood Lane, W12 7DP
The Albion is less busy on weekday evenings since its gastropub-by-numbers makeover (its beer garden is still the main draw on sunny weekends). It's now all colonial...
Islington: 10 Thornhill Road, N1 1HW
This upbeat cocktail bar attracts an up-for-it crowd of twenty- and thirtysomethings with drinking, dancing and chat-up lines on their minds. There's a decadent clubby...
Battersea: 225 St John's Hill, SW11 1TH
Proximity to the station and an earnest attempt to appeal both to young smarty-pants and to bitter-swilling crossword lovers make this one of the better options in an...
Wimbledon: 33 Wimbledon Hill Road, SW19 7NE
Of Bloomsbury's two subterranean bowling dens, this is the one with aspirations. Walk past the lanes and smart, diner-style seating, and you'll find yourself in a...
Bloomsbury: Victoria House, Bloomsbury Place, WC1B 4DA
Stunning bay windows dominate the front bar of this relaxed and friendly foodie pub. On hazy afternoons, light pours through them on to the mismatched leather sofas,...
Stoke Newington: 59 Newington Green Road, N1 4QU
Leaving Wandsworth Town station, you can't miss the fine Victorian pub opposite, with its impressive green-tiled frontage and large second-floor turret. Many original...
Wandsworth: 499 Old York Road, SW18 1TF
At the forefront of London's bar revolution in the late 1990s, Alphabet still does little wrong; but it could, perhaps, do with a little contemporary competition....
Soho: 61-63 Beak Street, W1F 9SS
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