Bars & Pubs

Cinnamon Club

Divided between an upscale Indian restaurant, a buzzy DJ basement and sedate, study-like cocktail bar by the main entrance, this former local library has a...

Westminster: The Old Westminster Library, 30-32 Great Smith Street, SW1P 3BU

Distance: 0.3 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: 0.3 mls

Speaker

It's a while since we've heard such compelling bar banter as here, where the Friday lunch barflies - some suited, some in high-visibility vests - kept up an...

Westminster: 46 Great Peter Street, SW1P 2HA

Distance: 0.4 mls

Tapster (branch of Davy's)

Victoria: 3 Brewers Green, Buckingham Gate, SW1H 0RH

Distance: 0.4 mls

Albannach

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

Distance: 0.4 mls

Rockwell

Sleek whisky bar

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

Distance: 0.4 mls

Albert

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

Distance: 0.4 mls

Ship & Shovell

Sir Cloudesley Shovell is a strange enough character to name a pub after, let alone two facing each other prow to prow at the Thames end of the Arches. Both taverns...

Trafalgar Square: 1-3 Craven Passage, WC2N 5PH

Distance: 0.4 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: 0.4 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: 0.5 mls

Davy's at St James's

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

Distance: 0.5 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: 0.5 mls

Champagne Charlies (branch of Davy's)

Strand: 17 The Arches, off Villiers Street, WC2N 6NG

Distance: 0.5 mls

Island

Fancy splashing your cash? Gorgeous to a fault - all bare brick walls, slick 1970s wallpaper and cream sofas - with a mezzanine to pose on, this new West End...

Strand: Hungerford Lane, WC2N 6NG

Distance: 0.5 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: 0.5 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: 0.5 mls

Gordon's

One of London’s oldest bars, Gordon’s is adorned with sweaty, stained alcoves and cobwebs. Surprisingly this appeals to a young, trendy crowd, but you’re still...

Strand: 47 Villiers Street, WC2N 6NE

Distance: 0.5 mls

Dukes Hotel

This centenarian hotel was renovated top to bottom in 2007 by hotelier Campbell Gray (he of One Aldwych fame) and designer Mary Fox Linton, transforming its discreet,...

St James's: 35 St James''s Place, SW1A 1NY

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

Terroirs

Artisan-made food and ‘natural’ wines

Strand: 5 William IV St, WC2N 4DW

Distance: 0.5 mls

Balls Brothers

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

Distance: 0.5 mls

International

Surrounded by dismal chains, this chic and cosmopolitan bar-eaterie easily stands out. With abstract paintings on the walls and the salon feel of the burgundy divans,...

Leicester Square: 116 St Martin's Lane, WC2N 4BF

Distance: 0.6 mls

Retro Bar

Hidden down a quaint alley, and seemingly frozen in 1984, the Retro Bar is one of London's most eccentric gay bars. A framed black and white photograph of Boy George,...

Trafalgar Square: 2 George Court, WC2N 6HH

Distance: 0.6 mls

Harp

This honest little boozer diagonally opposite Charing Cross Post Office brings in blokey regulars who like to mull over the racing form. Apart from the engaging...

Leicester Square: 47 Chandos Place, WC2N 4HS

Distance: 0.6 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: 0.6 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: 0.6 mls

Bedford & Strand

With its glass-topped wood dividers, B&S looks more like a Yates’s wine lodge than a hip bar, but it’s one of the few non-touristy places in this part of town and...

Covent Garden: 1A Bedford Street, WC2E 9HH

Distance: 0.6 mls

Concrete

Thank the Lord. Starbucks has gone and in its place is a classy little bar/café with the tongue-in-cheek name of Concrete (set, as it is, in the vast Brutalist...

Waterloo: The Hayward, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX

Distance: 0.6 mls

Skylon

There can't be many better transport views than this in all of London. Sit at the cocktail bar (in between the two restaurant areas), and gaze out of what seems like a...

Waterloo: Royal Festival Hall, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX

Distance: 0.6 mls