The best quirky bars and pubs in London

Step straight into the ’70s. Bobby Fitzpatrick is a retro-themed bar in West Hampstead that takes nostalgia to new levels. Stucco ceilings and kitsch furniture provide a look that would have Austin Powers blushing: this bar is the very definition of a shag pad. Have drinks that transport you far away from any dreariness. Off the booze? Ask nicely and the staff will whip you up a fruity mocktail.

Cocktails in teapots might be old hat, but there’s still a lot to love about a night out at Deptford’s Little Nan’s Bar. There’s leopard-print on sofas and doilies on hard surfaces, plus more royal family memorabilia than you can shake a sceptre at. Add to that some ’90s pop anthems, sparklers in your cheesy chips and Pat Butcher references aplenty. And temperance has never looked so silly, with alcohol-free cocktails including a Baroness Dimmock and a drink honouring TV’s original huns ‘Loose Women’.

Remember when a trip to the arcades was the best thing you could do with your Friday night? At this London arcade bar, it still can be. Lose yourself to the retro delights of Street Fighter, Ms Pac-Man, Asteroids et al. Unlike the gaming, 4Q’s menu is far from a throwback and features plenty of London craft beers. Vegan junk food – from burgers to chilli cheeze fries – is provided by Deptford’s The Full Nelson.

A bar on a boat is what you get from the great Alfred Le Roy, a blue barge associated with the ever-popular Crate Brewery. Gather a crew and get all aboard for a cocktail tour of town that journeys through east London’s canal network. Some of the drinks served even contain kombucha brewed by the company. There’s space for around 40 seated shipmates, and when the bar is stationary in the summer months, it’s well worth hopping on for a quick tipple. Aye aye.

This disused air-raid shelter has been reinvented as a post-war tube station complete with vintage bric-a-brac, staff enthusiastically in character, and inventive cocktails that nod to rationing. War – what is it good for? Inspiring sunnily nostalgic themed bars, it seems. Don’t miss the envelope at the back of the menu marked ‘Do Not Open’ – it’s full of black market specials served surreptitiously.

This fantasy and sci-fi-inspired cocktail experience is about all things magical. Visitors have the chance to don a cape and make the impossible happen, brewing their own potions with an interactive magic wand. One for the Potter-heads, no doubt.

This tiny basement bar – a former public loo – squeezes a lot of fun within its walls, including nightly cabaret, burlesque and drag acts. It’s camp, it’s quirky, and you'll love it. 

This supposed firm of private investigators is the Robert De Niro of the speakeasy world – it’s so method, you’ll feel like you’re an extra in ‘LA Confidential’. Don’t be fooled – the ‘curious cases’ are all potable… and it’s down to you to solve them. Head along for evenings of suitably retro entertainment, from cabaret and burlesque to ‘Chicago’-style gin and jazz nights.

Another former public loo, the soundtrack is Manhattan cocktail-lounge material, mostly jazz vocalists such as Ella Fitzgerald when we were there. There is also a changing roster of ‘boilermakers’, an American invention: a shot of spirits with a beer chaser.

This is one ‘cool’ (hint hint) speakeasy hidden behind the innocuous-looking Smeg fridge in the Spitalfields branch of all-day diner The Breakfast Club. Once inside, you’re transported to a trapper’s log cabin and plied with quality cocktails pepped up with artisan shrubs and bitters. 

Drinking at a Mr Fogg’s bar is more than just drinking – it’s an experience. And Mr Fogg’s Society of Exploration is no different. Offering a whistlestop tour of the world, the menu is split into different destinations such as the North Pole and the Sahara desert, with drinks inspired by each. 

If you’re after a romantic tipple, tiny French bar Tabac is right up your rue. The charming Kentish Town spot will make you feel you’ve been transported to mid-century Paris, with memorabilia, sliding ladders in front of bookshelves and lots and lots of candlelight. Lock eyes with a loved one (or a stranger, no judgment here) over a Lemon Garden, a smooth gin martini with bitters and a sprig of lemon thyme.

‘Why the fuck can’t I have fun all the time?’ asks a sign outside. ‘Well-behaved women don’t make history,’ screams a neon sign at the bottom of the stairs. ‘Wear the pants, boss lady,’ insists the wallpaper. In millennial pink? You bet. This tiny basement bar is plastered in cyber-sayings and meme-material. It’s silly, sassy and utterly shameless. It wants you to be too – and then to post about it on social media. Time to get sassy.

The Booking Office remains Kings Cross’ undisputed cocktail champion. For one thing, it’s a great place to sit, whether you’re in the lovely former booking hall, with its dark wood and soaring gothic arches, or outside overlooking the train tracks. There can be slightly longer waits outside, so don’t go if you’re in a rush. Frequented by a lot of business people – and, naturally, by travellers – it’s not a place you go for a cool hangout vibe. But you make your own atmos at the comfortable, low-slung tables.

Part pub, part theatrical production, this Waterloo-based boozer is owned by the brains behind The Vaults – and you can tell. The place is littered with humungous props that whisper of onstage antics. There’s Espresso Martini on tap, draft Negronis (from a tap shaped like a miniature barrel) and boozy lychee or Pimm’s slushies. Anyone who can’t decide what cocktail to have will find themselves offered a spin on a ‘Wheel of Fortune’-esque pointer.