Bars & Pubs

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: 0.1 mls

Cork & Bottle

A cosy, tucked-away place for those in-the-know, this basement bar is one of the few independent establishments left around Leicester Square. A Mumm Champagne window...

Leicester Square: 44-46 Cranbourn Street, WC2H 7AN

Distance: 0.1 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: 0.1 mls

Spice of Life

The landmark Spice, towering beside a mess of building work that will eventually transform Cambridge Circus, has laudably reconnected with its past to provide a...

Soho: 37-39 Romilly Street, W1D 5AN

Distance: 0.1 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: 0.1 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: 0.1 mls

Coach & Horses

So steeped in its own legend that it has the word 'Norman's' above its own pub sign, the Coach is nonetheless moving away from the era of the famously rude landlord...

Soho: 29 Greek Street, W1D 5DH

Distance: 0.1 mls

23 Romilly Street

CLOSED

Soho: 23 Romilly Street, W1D 5HP

Distance: 3563.1 mls

Phoenix Artist Club

Kitsch, louche and very late-night, the Phoenix attracts a regular crowd of debauched luvvies and miscreants to its basement den. Decked out in framed handbills,...

Soho: 1 Phoenix Street, WC2H 0DT

Distance: 0.2 mls

LAB

As the painstakingly conceived sections of its encyclopedic drinks menu suggest, LAB is streets ahead, high and mighty, as well as being short and sexy. Certainly...

Soho: 12 Old Compton Street, W1D 4TQ

Distance: 0.2 mls

De Hems

Benelux beers are ubiquitous these days, but there was a time when few venues purveyed pilsners and lagers from the Low Countries. This ornate-fronted hostelry on the...

Leicester Square: 11 Macclesfield Street, W1D 5BW

Distance: 0.2 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: 0.2 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: 0.2 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: 0.2 mls

French House

Through the door ('Poussez') of this venerable Gallic establishment have passed many titanic drinkers of the pre- and post-war era, the Bacons and the Behans, the...

Soho: 49 Dean Street, W1D 5BG

Distance: 0.2 mls

Crusting Pipe (branch of Davy's)

Covent Garden: 27 The Market, WC2E 8RD

Distance: 0.2 mls

Segar & Snuff Parlour (branch of Davy's)

Covent Garden: 27A The Market, WC2E 8RD

Distance: 0.2 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: 0.2 mls

Admiral Duncan

In Soho's trendier gay bars, cruising takes second place to posing. Not so at the Admiral Duncan, which still flies the rainbow flag of unashamed Friday night fun....

Soho: 54 Old Compton Street, W1D 4UB

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

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

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: 0.2 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

Terroirs

Artisan-made food and ‘natural’ wines

Strand: 5 William IV St, WC2N 4DW

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

Pillars of Hercules

Its mock Tudor frontage spanning the entrance to Manette Street, the traditional Pillars is a popular Soho pit stop for tourists, but is a quality destination...

Soho: 7 Greek Street, W1D 4DF

Distance: 0.2 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: 0.2 mls

Dog & Duck

This cosy, century-old Nicholson's corner pub has changed little since Orwell hung out here in the 1940s. Today's regulars take their tipples seriously; there are even...

Soho: 18 Bateman Street, W1D 3AJ

Distance: 0.2 mls