Bars & Pubs

Coburg Bar

Luxurious, elegant and discreet, this is everything a good hotel bar should be. From the criminally comfortable, grey velvet, wing-backed chairs and chic, black glass...

Mayfair: The Connaught, Carlos Place, W1K 2AL

Distance: 0.1 mls

Connaught Bar

Latest glam bar in The Connaught

Mayfair: 16 Carlos Place, W1K 2AL

Distance: 0.1 mls

Audley

This Mayfair institution has a lot going for it: a splendid, high-ceilinged Victorian interior with the requisite panelling and chandeliers, cask ales (Young's, London...

Mayfair: 41-43 Mount Street, W1K 2RX

Distance: 0.1 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: 0.1 mls

The Bar at The Dorchester

To crown its recent refurbishment programme, The Dorchester has put the redesign of its landmark bar in the hands of Thierry Despont, a New York-based French architect...

Mayfair: 53 Park Lane, W1K 1QA

Distance: 0.2 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: 0.2 mls

Claridge's Bar

When we visited Claridge's on a Thursday night, they were standing three-deep at the bar - eager, it seems, to pay, as we did, £19 and £20 respectively for glasses...

Mayfair: Claridge's Hotel, 49 Brook Street, W1K 4HR

Distance: 0.2 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: 0.2 mls

Trader Vic's

It's hard to know quite who this place is aimed at: it's too far from any of the major rail terminals or theatres for the bridge-and-tunnel crowd, and hardly somewhere...

Mayfair: London Hilton, 22 Park Lane, W1K 4BE

Distance: 0.3 mls

Balls Brothers

Mayfair: 34 Brook Street, W1K 5DN

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

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: 0.3 mls

Mulligan's of Mayfair (branch of Balls Brothers)

Mayfair: 14 Cork Street, W1S 3NS

Distance: 0.4 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: 0.4 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: 0.4 mls

Wonder Bar

Anyone who professes to not liking wine is liable to be converted here. Selfridges Wonder Bar, overseen by their sommelier and wine buyer Dawn Davies, is one of...

Marble Arch: Selfridges, 400 Oxford Street, W1U 1AT

Distance: 0.9 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

Moose Bar

I can't imagine anyone not liking this place. The latest venture from the Vince Power Music Group, opened late last year, is a rarity in the West End: cosy, reasonably...

Marylebone: The Moose, 31 Duke St, W1U 1LG

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

Chopper Lump (branch of Davy's)

Mayfair: 10C Hanover Square, W1S 1HN

Distance: 0.4 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: 0.9 mls

Library

Surprisingly, those books are real. But the whole place is otherwise a fabulous illusion: despite its olde worlde appearance, the Lanesborough was a hospital until the...

Belgravia: Lanesborough Hotel, 1 Lanesborough Place, Hyde Park Corner, SW1X 7TA

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

Balls Brothers

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

Distance: 0.5 mls

Ain't Nothin' But... The Blues Bar

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

Distance: 0.5 mls

Aqua Spirit

High-end cocktail bar above Oxford Cirus

Oxford Street: Fifth Floor, 240 Regent St (entrance in Argyll St), W1B 3BR

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

Argyll Arms

The clientele at the impressive, historic, frosted-glass-and-mahogany Argyll Arms is almost as transitory as Oxford Circus, a stone's throw away. The pub was just as...

Soho: 18 Argyll Street, W1F 7TP

Distance: 0.5 mls