Bars & Pubs

Cittie of Yorke

It's big, it's beery, but above all it's brown: the cleaners here must get through a month's worth of furniture polish in one night. There's a cosy front area, a...

Holborn: 22 High Holborn, WC1V 6BN

Distance: 0.1 mls

CC Bar

There's a very welcoming atmosphere here, unusually so for a cocktail bar in an upmarket hotel. The high-ceiling room is beautiful, but the fittings and furniture,...

Holborn: Renaissance Chancery Court Hotel, 252 High Holborn, WC1V 7EN

Distance: 0.1 mls

Bar Polski

A neat, modern space that mutates from Polish café during the day into something resembling a crowded student bar at night. The likes of pierogis, bigos, sandwiches,...

Holborn: 11 Little Turnstile, WC1V 7DX

Distance: 0.2 mls

Castle

There's nothing immediately special about this corner boozer, either from the outside - big glass windows and a few hanging baskets - or inside (in spite of the refit:...

City: 26 Furnival Street, EC4A 1JS

Distance: 0.2 mls

Seven Stars

The TV career of landlady Roxy Beaujolais may have stuttered, but her flagship pub goes from strength to strength. People pile down here on weekday evenings, knowing...

Holborn: 53 Carey Street, WC2A 2JB

Distance: 0.2 mls

George IV

Set on an unassuming, traffic-free junction of three streets, the spruce George IV attracts orderly students and staff from the London School of Economics opposite....

Aldwych: 26-28 Portugal Street, WC2A 2HE

Distance: 0.3 mls

Volupté

One of the pioneers of London’s new breed of supper clubs, Volupté caters for people who don’t mind blowing £20 on a burlesque show. The ground-floor bar might...

Chancery Lane: 7-9 Norwich Street, EC4A 1EJ

Distance: 0.3 mls

White Swan Pub & Dining Room

The Martin Brothers have done a bang-up job of refurbishing the former Mucky Duck pub: wood sides and bottom, intricately carved settle, a mirror so vast half of it...

City: 108 Fetter Lane, EC4A 1EP

Distance: 0.3 mls

Princess Louise

This place is absolutely teeming with history. Nineteenth-century London's most dextrous craftsmen shaped this boozer to the tune of £5,000 which, back then, got you...

Holborn: 208-209 High Holborn, WC1V 7BW

Distance: 0.3 mls

Perseverance

Occupying a large corner site near Great Ormond Street hospital, this is a popular spot for medics seeking to soothe the stresses of their jobs. A recent refurb put...

Bloomsbury: 63 Lamb's Conduit Street, WC1N 3NB

Distance: 0.3 mls

Vats Wine Bar & Restaurant

A proper, old-fashioned wine bar, Vats is a regular lunchtime haunt for Lincoln’s Inn barristers and various other characters in the neighbourhood. The backroom...

Bloomsbury: 51 Lamb’s Conduit Street, WC1N 3NB

Distance: 0.3 mls

All Star Lanes

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

Distance: 0.3 mls

Duke

Like the Duke himself (of York that is), the one who marched his men to the top of the hill only to march them down again, this place has its quirks. Seating in the...

Bloomsbury: 7 Roger Street, WC1N 2PB

Distance: 0.3 mls

Ye Olde Mitre Tavern

Consistently voted one of the best pubs in London by self-proclaimed experts on internet forums - and you'd have to say they've got this one spot on. Its secluded...

Holborn: 1 Ely Court, Ely Place side of 8 Hatton Garden, EC1N 6SJ

Distance: 0.3 mls

Gunmakers

One of many gastropubs within easy reach of the Guardian offices, Gunmakers is popular with lunching hacks but also operates as an excellent natter-filled bar. Draught...

Clerkenwell: 13 Eyre Street Hill, EC1R 5ET

Distance: 0.4 mls

Potëmkin

Potëmkin ('Potyomkin') is a smart and well-stocked Russian bar with more than 50 varieties of vodka in clear, unusual, berry, fruit, citrus and herb 'n' spice...

Clerkenwell: 144 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DP

Distance: 0.4 mls

Lamb

Founded in 1729, this Young's pub is the sort of place that makes you misty-eyed for a vanishing era. The Lamb found fame as a theatrical haunt when the A-list...

Bloomsbury: 94 Lamb's Conduit Street, WC1N 3LZ

Distance: 0.4 mls

Truckles of Pied Bull Yard

Its ghastly name sounds like an old-fashioned shop, though this is actually part of the Davy's wine chain. As a bar, Truckles is something of a one-trick pony - think...

Bloomsbury: Off Bury Place, WC1A 2JR

Distance: 0.4 mls

Apple Tree

This smart gastropub and post-work glughouse has a superior feel about it, thanks to high ceilings, tall house plants and a quality drinks list. Draught beers include...

Clerkenwell: 45 Mount Pleasant, WC1X 0AE

Distance: 0.4 mls

Hat & Tun

Martin brothers boozer

Clerkenwell & Farringdon: 3 Hatton Wall, EC1N 8HX

Distance: 0.4 mls

Lowlander

Brightly logoed and Benelux-themed, the smart Lowlander fills its expansive, long-tabled space easily, thanks to an impressive range of draught and bottled beer. The...

Covent Garden: 36 Drury Lane, WC2B 5RR

Distance: 0.4 mls

Edgar Wallace

His bust sitting attentively on the bar counter, the pre-war penman would have appreciated this neat, well-run pub serving handpump ales and decent wines to a mainly...

Aldwych: 40 Essex Street, WC2R 3JE

Distance: 0.4 mls

El Vino

The ultimate old-fashioned wine bar, in the heart of London legal land. Many a barrister finds a way here from the Courts of Justice opposite, and you’ll hear plenty...

City: 47 Fleet Street, EC4Y 1BJ

Distance: 0.4 mls

Last (branch of Balls Brothers)

City: 73 Shoe Lane, EC4A 3BQ

Distance: 0.4 mls

Queen's Larder

Set on the west side of Queen Square, this pub is well placed to bag custom from Great Ormond Street hospital and among the learners and lecturers of neighbouring Mary...

Bloomsbury: 1 Queen Square, WC1N 3AR

Distance: 0.4 mls

Vivat Bacchus

What is it about quotations and wine bars? Scrawled throughout this rambling venue you’ll find ‘Champagne is a way of life, a state of mind, and better than...

Farringdon: 47 Farringdon Street, EC4A 4LL

Distance: 0.4 mls

Coach & Horses

This gastro gem is invariably packed with staff from the nearby Guardian offices, whose splashes decorate the wood-panelled interior. Inside, pub and restaurant areas...

Clerkenwell: 26-28 Ray Street, EC1R 3DJ

Distance: 0.4 mls

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

If you were to put a branch of All Bar One at one end of the drinking den spectrum, you'd find this pub leering at it with yellowing teeth from the other. Gloriously...

Fleet Street: 145 Fleet Street, EC4A 2BU

Distance: 0.4 mls

Fabric

In Fabric's very early days, one promoter suggested that the new venue would become a latter-day Haçienda. Nine years on, the prophecy has come true: you wouldn't be...

Clerkenwell: 77A Charterhouse Street, EC1M 3HN

Distance: 0.4 mls