Bars & Pubs

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: 0.1 mls

Bung Hole Cellars (branch of Davy's)

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

Distance: 0.1 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: 0.2 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

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: 0.2 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: 0.2 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

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: 0.3 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: 0.3 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: 0.3 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: 0.3 mls

Opera Quarter

Glamorous pop-up operation in Covent Garden

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

Distance: 3563.5 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: 0.3 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: 0.3 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: 0.3 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

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

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: 0.4 mls

Museum Tavern

When a boozer boasts logoed T-shirts and its own history book, you might be wary; but this venerable corner pub opposite the British Museum pulls in its fair share of...

Bloomsbury: 49 Great Russell Street, WC1B 3BA

Distance: 0.4 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: 0.4 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

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: 0.4 mls

CellarDoor

Public convenience turned public bar

Covent Garden: Zero Aldwych, WC2E 7DN

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

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

Victory

The people who brought you the now defunct Hedges & Butler have magicked this former underground New Oxford Street car park into a Victorian high street film set....

Bloomsbury: 55 New Oxford Street, WC1A 1BS

Distance: 0.4 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: 0.4 mls

Crusting Pipe (branch of Davy's)

Covent Garden: 27 The Market, WC2E 8RD

Distance: 0.4 mls