Bars & Pubs

Balls Brothers

St James's: 20 St James's Street, SW1A 1ES

Distance: 0.1 mls

Red Lion

Hidden down a dark and narrow passageway, this traditional pub is an in-the-know location for local workers, and would doubtless excite overseas tourists looking for...

St James's: 23 Crown Passage, off Pall Mall, SW1Y 6PP

Distance: 0.1 mls

Davy's at St James's

St James's: Crown Passage, Pall Mall, SW1Y 6QY

Distance: 0.1 mls

Golden Lion

With its site opposite Christie's, in a district full of gentlemen's clubs, you might expect the Golden Lion to have an exclusive air about it. In fact, the staff at...

St James's: 25 King Street, SW1Y 6QY

Distance: 0.1 mls

Rivoli at The Ritz

The Ritz's landmark bar was refurbished a few years ago, apparently tarted up to something like its 1920s glory. We've not seen photographs of how it looked in its...

St James's: Ritz Hotel, 150 Piccadilly, W1J 9BR

Distance: 0.1 mls

Mahiki

Regular and much-publicised patronage by junior members of the Royal Family means you'll have to queue to get in here, even midweek; though when you're in this Mayfair...

Mayfair: 1 Dover Street, W1S 4LD

Distance: 0.2 mls

1707

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

Distance: 0.8 mls

5th View

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

Distance: 0.3 mls

Donovan Bar

To get to the Donovan, you have to pass through an anonymous, standard-issue hotel bar, with acres of grey carpet and a pianist tinkling away in a corner. But don't...

Mayfair: Brown's Hotel, 33-34 Albemarle Street, W1S 4BP

Distance: 0.3 mls

Mulligan's of Mayfair (branch of Balls Brothers)

Mayfair: 14 Cork Street, W1S 3NS

Distance: 0.3 mls

Pigalle Club

This sleek, chic, basement supper club (part of the Vince Power stable) is all about 1940s-style glamour: low lighting, olive-green carpets, antique fittings and...

Piccadilly: 215-217 Piccadilly, W1J 9HN

Distance: 0.3 mls

Only Running Footman

There's something gracious about many Mayfair pubs: disinclined to lay on satellite sport and all-night happy hours, the best retain an old-world charm. This is one...

Mayfair: 5 Charles Street, W1J 5DF

Distance: 0.3 mls

Glass

Part of an enterprise that includes a restaurant and a swanky club, Glass appears to lead something of a double life. When it's busy, this shiny, happy room is popular...

Piccadilly: 9 Glasshouse Street, W1B 5EL

Distance: 0.4 mls

Mô Tea Room

A small corner of the West End that is forever Marrakech. That, at least, is the idea, though the casbah chic (or is it kitsch?) here may be a little rich for some...

Mayfair: 25 Heddon Street, W1B 4BH

Distance: 0.4 mls

ICA Bar

Having paid the £2 day membership fee (and thus skirting a local law concerning alcohol sales and nearby Buckingham Palace), walk through the ICA gallery to what at...

Trafalgar Square: The Mall, SW1Y 5AH

Distance: 0.4 mls

Absolut IceBar/BelowZero

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

Distance: 0.4 mls

Brumus Bar

As you'd expect of the main bar at London's most talked-about new hotel, Brumus is a handsome chap. More surprising, it isn't a bit snobbish - in fact, on a Saturday...

Piccadilly: Haymarket Hotel, 1 Suffolk Place, SW1Y 4BP

Distance: 0.4 mls

Electric Bird Cage

The distinctively theatrical hand of bar and club designer Shaun Clarkson - responsible for Covent Garden's Denim, La Pigalle and countless other opulent interiors -...

Piccadilly: 11 Haymarket, SW1Y 4BP

Distance: 0.4 mls

Polo Bar

Polo eschews the bland international style of so many hotel bars in favour of gorgeous art deco fittings that are just the right side of opulent; that's one reason...

Mayfair: Westbury Hotel, New Bond Street, W1S 2YF

Distance: 0.4 mls

Mark's Bar

Downstairs bar in Mark Hix's Soho restaurant

Soho: 66-70 Brewer Street, W1F 9UP

Distance: 3562.7 mls

Guinea

Tucked away in an attractive West End mews, the Guinea is a proper boozer - and there aren't many of those in this part of town. The largely besuited punters sup from...

Mayfair: 30 Bruton Place, W1J 6NL

Distance: 0.4 mls

Galvin at Windows

There's no more remarkable site for a bar in London than Windows: 28 floors up, at the top of the Park Lane Hilton, with an extraordinary panoramic view of the...

Mayfair: 28th floor, London Hilton, 22 Park Lane, W1K 1BE

Distance: 0.5 mls

Rockwell

Sleek whisky bar

Trafalgar Square: The Trafalgar Hilton Hotel, 2 Spring Gardens, SW1A 2TS

Distance: 0.5 mls

Two Floors

Sparse, laid-back and bohemian, the two-floor Two Floors is understated and quite wonderful. Beers here are mainly bottled (Modelo Especial, Red Stripe, Brooklyn),...

Soho: 3 Kingly Street, W1B 5PD

Distance: 0.5 mls

Shampers

While many of the kids around Carnaby Street opt for the Puma shoes shop and assorted style bars, those with more experience drop into Shampers. Pinstripe suits and...

Soho: 4 Kingly Street, W1B 5PE

Distance: 0.5 mls

Zander Bar

Sister to the Bank Aldwych restaurant, this cocktail bar was all the rage in the early 1990s. Times have changed but not the long, gleaming zinc counter and service...

Victoria: 45 Buckingham Gate, SW1E 6BS

Distance: 0.5 mls

Cask & Glass

Hanging baskets of flowers and the kind of pub frontage usually associated with villages in Kent compose a very pretty picture here, especially when incongruously...

Victoria: 39-41 Palace Street, SW1E 5HN

Distance: 0.5 mls

The Punch Bowl

Guy Ritchie's pub in Mayfair

Mayfair: 41 Farm St, W1J 5RP

Distance: 0.5 mls

Bar Rumba

Bar Rumba says it's a fave with Londoners, and we believe it. Open since 1993 but still packing them in, this West End basement venue puts on some of the most esteemed...

Piccadilly: 36 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 7ER

Distance: 0.5 mls