Bars & Pubs

Opera Quarter

Glamorous pop-up operation in Covent Garden

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

Distance: 0 mls

CellarDoor

Public convenience turned public bar

Covent Garden: Zero Aldwych, WC2E 7DN

Distance: 0 mls

Crusting Pipe (branch of Davy's)

Covent Garden: 27 The Market, WC2E 8RD

Distance: 0.1 mls

Segar & Snuff Parlour (branch of Davy's)

Covent Garden: 27A The Market, WC2E 8RD

Distance: 0.1 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: 0.1 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: 0.1 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

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: 0.2 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: 0.2 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: 0.2 mls

Bedford & Strand

With its glass-topped wood dividers, B&S looks more like a Yates’s wine lodge than a hip bar, but it’s one of the few non-touristy places in this part of town and...

Covent Garden: 1A Bedford Street, WC2E 9HH

Distance: 0.2 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: 0.2 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: 0.2 mls

Retro Bar

Hidden down a quaint alley, and seemingly frozen in 1984, the Retro Bar is one of London's most eccentric gay bars. A framed black and white photograph of Boy George,...

Trafalgar Square: 2 George Court, WC2N 6HH

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

Harp

This honest little boozer diagonally opposite Charing Cross Post Office brings in blokey regulars who like to mull over the racing form. Apart from the engaging...

Leicester Square: 47 Chandos Place, WC2N 4HS

Distance: 0.3 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: 0.3 mls

Terroirs

Artisan-made food and ‘natural’ wines

Strand: 5 William IV St, WC2N 4DW

Distance: 0.3 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

Salisbury

There's now a cashpoint by the door and a rainbow of WKDs in the fridge, but glimpses of modernity are still largely absent from this Victorian landmark. All cut-glass...

Leicester Square: 90 St Martin's Lane, WC2N 4AP

Distance: 0.3 mls

Gordon's

One of London’s oldest bars, Gordon’s is adorned with sweaty, stained alcoves and cobwebs. Surprisingly this appeals to a young, trendy crowd, but you’re still...

Strand: 47 Villiers Street, WC2N 6NE

Distance: 0.3 mls

Box

At first glance, this gay café-bar seems a pretty standard joint (leather banquettes, big windows, mirrors); however, its Covent Garden location makes a fine break...

Covent Garden: 32-34 Monmouth Street, WC2H 9HA

Distance: 0.3 mls

Champagne Charlies (branch of Davy's)

Strand: 17 The Arches, off Villiers Street, WC2N 6NG

Distance: 0.3 mls

Island

Fancy splashing your cash? Gorgeous to a fault - all bare brick walls, slick 1970s wallpaper and cream sofas - with a mezzanine to pose on, this new West End...

Strand: Hungerford Lane, WC2N 6NG

Distance: 0.3 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: 0.3 mls

International

Surrounded by dismal chains, this chic and cosmopolitan bar-eaterie easily stands out. With abstract paintings on the walls and the salon feel of the burgundy divans,...

Leicester Square: 116 St Martin's Lane, WC2N 4BF

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

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: 0.4 mls