Bars & Pubs

Opera Quarter

Glamorous pop-up operation in Covent Garden

Covent Garden: 13-15 Tavistock St, WC2E 7PA

Distance: 3563.3 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: 0.2 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

Christopher's Martini Bar

Christopher's rightly calls itself the American Bar, not only because the original at the nearby Savoy is closed for refurbishment, but because the quality of its...

Covent Garden: 18 Wellington Street, WC2E 7DD

Distance: 0.2 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: 0.2 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

CellarDoor

Public convenience turned public bar

Covent Garden: Zero Aldwych, WC2E 7DN

Distance: 0.2 mls

Lobby Bar

The signature bar of the upmarket urban hotel One Aldwych is known for the range and quality of its cocktails and for a sculpture of a bemused rower. From one of the...

Strand: One Aldwych, WC2

Distance: 0.2 mls

Café des Amis

As French as its name and namesake restaurant upstairs, the cosy C des A is more basement bar than café, but stylish for all that. A buzzy bunch of shoppers and...

Covent Garden: 11-14 Hanover Place, WC2E 9JP

Distance: 0.2 mls

Café des Amis

Some still miss the former incarnation of this Covent Garden bar, with wires and exposed heating pipes aplenty. Now it’s more like a hotel venue, with red alcove...

Covent Garden: 11-14 Hanover Place, WC2E 9JP

Distance: 0.2 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: 0.2 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: 0.3 mls

Crusting Pipe (branch of Davy's)

Covent Garden: 27 The Market, WC2E 8RD

Distance: 0.3 mls

Segar & Snuff Parlour (branch of Davy's)

Covent Garden: 27A The Market, WC2E 8RD

Distance: 0.3 mls

Bung Hole Cellars (branch of Davy's)

Holborn: Hand Court, 57 High Holborn, WC1V 6DT

Distance: 0.3 mls

Cross Keys

Quirky, atmospheric and nicely unpretentious, the Cross Keys begs one question. What the hell is it doing in tourist-mobbed Covent Garden? Catering to ordinary folk...

Covent Garden: 31 Endell Street, WC2H 9EB

Distance: 0.3 mls

Langley

This cavernous, bare-brick basement bar caters to an up-for-it crowd eager for fun and eye contact. Nine-to-fivers mingle around the main Geneva Bar before breaking...

Covent Garden: 5 Langley Street, WC2H 9JA

Distance: 0.3 mls

Maple Leaf

'This public house is dedicated to the friendship between Britons and Canadians', says the sign. Inside, a recent refurb has kept the log-cabin atmosphere which, with...

Covent Garden: 41 Maiden Lane, WC2E 7LJ

Distance: 0.3 mls

Porterhouse

Irish by nationality but remarkably global by nature, this gleaming, multi-spaced hostelry has a gregarious, no-nonsense vibe. Underpinning it all are draught stouts...

Covent Garden: 21-22 Maiden Lane, WC2E 7NA

Distance: 0.3 mls

AKA

Just off the bustle and tat of Shaftesbury Avenue, this airy cocoon - sister venture to the End - claims to have been London's original DJ bar, and it's still grooving...

Bloomsbury: 18 West Central Street, WC1A 1JJ

Distance: 0.4 mls

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: 0.4 mls

Detroit

Subterranean Detroit's cave-like alcoves combine a sense of below-radar cool with the uneasy feeling you've stumbled on a Flintstones theme park; it's not for...

Covent Garden: 35 Earlham Street, WC2H 9LD

Distance: 0.4 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: 0.4 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: 0.4 mls

Freud

Back in the day - the late 1980s to be precise - Freud was the hottest ticket in town. Below the shop of the same name, this hidden cellar bar (reached via a metal...

Covent Garden: 198 Shaftesbury Avenue, WC2H 8JL

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

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

Lamb & Flag

A pub for over 300 years and a fixture on Rose Street for longer, the unabashedly traditional Lamb & Flag is always a squeeze, but no one seems to mind. Character...

Covent Garden: 33 Rose Street, WC2E 9EB

Distance: 0.4 mls

Brasserie Max

Under the row of flags on the stern, stylish Covent Garden Hotel, this bar-restaurant is one to impress with. Join the crowd of well-to-do creative types for...

Covent Garden: Covent Garden Hotel, 10 Monmouth Street, WC2H 9LF

Distance: 0.4 mls