Bars & Pubs

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: 0.1 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: 0.1 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: 0.6 mls

Mark's Bar

Downstairs bar in Mark Hix's Soho restaurant

Soho: 66-70 Brewer Street, W1F 9UP

Distance: 0.2 mls

Balls Brothers

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

Distance: 0.2 mls

Davy's at St James's

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

Distance: 0.2 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: 0.2 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: 0.2 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: 0.2 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: 0.2 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: 0.2 mls

Blue Posts

One of several in central London, this particular Blue Posts in the heart of Soho's gay quarter is professionally run and amiably staffed. Guests, gay and straight,...

Leicester Square: 28 Rupert Street, W1D 6DJ

Distance: 0.2 mls

Mulligan's of Mayfair (branch of Balls Brothers)

Mayfair: 14 Cork Street, W1S 3NS

Distance: 0.2 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: 0.2 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: 0.2 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

Yard

Summer sees the Yard's courtyard buzzing with a relaxed, thirtysomething crowd of gay men supping pints beneath the evening sky. Though drinking in the open air is the...

Soho: 57 Rupert Street, W1D 7PL

Distance: 0.2 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: 0.2 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: 0.2 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: 0.3 mls

Sun & Thirteen Cantons

Built way back in 1882, with links to Soho's Swiss heritage (hence the name - there's still a Helvetic map on the wall), this Soho boozer has opted to attract a...

Soho: 21 Great Pulteney Street, W1F 9NG

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

Old Coffee House

Slap in Soho bar central, this conspiratorially dark drinking den seems to have changed little since it first offered the eponymous coffee and idle chatter in the 18th...

Soho: 49 Beak Street, W1F 9SF

Distance: 0.3 mls

Rupert Street

Soho's original S&M (stand-and-model) bar, Rupert Street attracts pretty boys and their well-groomed admirers. Calling to mind Queer as Folk, the 1990s decor is...

Soho: 50 Rupert Street, W1D 6DR

Distance: 0.3 mls

Soho Revue Bar

The Raymond Revue Bar was a 1960s cabaret club, notorious for its striptease shows; it was, if we were to believe a towering sign at the front, 'The World Centre of...

Soho: 11 Walkers Court, W1F 0ED

Distance: 0.3 mls

Madame Jo Jo's

Virtually all those who sample this Soho stalwart love it. The sumptuous, slightly shabby red decor makes it stand out from the local crowd, and it spins several...

Soho: 8-10 Brewer Street, W1F 0SE

Distance: 0.3 mls

Alphabet

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

Distance: 0.3 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: 0.3 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