The most-loved bars and pubs in London

Outdoor spaces are big business come summer, and this seasonal pop-up between Waterloo and Westminster bridges is one of the biggest and best in London. Returning for its summer season from Thursday April 17, it boasting lovely views over the Thames and an eclectic programme of entertainment encompassing drag shows, DJs, live performances and themed club nights. What’s on at Between the Bridges? This summer’s events programme includes plenty of tried-and-tested favourites, from Barrioke with EastEnders actor Shaun Williamson (Friday May 9) and Taylor-themed party Swiftoggedon (Sunday May 25) to the Old Dirty Brasstards performing Abba (Friday June 6), Motown-themed immersive dining experience Soul Supper (various dates) and weekly bottomless brunches themed around everything from Whitney Houston to Dirty Dancing.  There’s plenty of free entertainment on too, including after-work drinks on Thursdays soundtracked by old-school hip hop and RnB from resident DJs, Friday night’s Dock Discos featuring contemporary house and disco tunes, and Guilty Pleasures featuring nostalgic 90s and noughties pop bangers every Saturday evening.  What food vendors are at Between the Bridges? The South Bank has long been a hub of great street food, and this year Time Out is getting in on the act, partnering with Between the Bridges to launch Time Out Eat Street, a mini food market featuring some of our favourite street food vendors from around the city, as selected by our Food & Drink Editor,...

It might look like a classic London pub from the outside, all Britain in Bloom-worthy hanging baskets and an extremely pub-like name picked out in gold lettering, but the Camberwell Arms is not a place to watch the footie or sink eight pints and waddle home semi-conscious (maybe try the Hermits Cave across the road for such tomfoolery). Locals have known this for the past decade, ever since the grand Victorian boozer was given a serious sprucing up in 2014 under the auspices of chef director Mike Davies. Mike had form; starting out at one of south London’s original gastropubs, the Anchor & Hope in Waterloo, before setting up another south London institution, the much-loved hipster HQ that is Frank’s rooftop bar in Peckham.  ‘Sublime’ doesn’t even begin to do it justice. It is nothing less than art Since then, the Camberwell Arms has remained the very picture of modesty. Settle into the spacious back room, an airy but still-intimate space, and the lack of fanfare (stripped wooden floorboards and the occasional stylish print is about as close to grandiose design as it gets here) only goes to prove how confident they are in the quality of the food. Who needs jazzed-up interiors when the cooking is this compelling?  The menu is short but not too short, seasonal without being smug, and features a wry nod to the room’s pub past; a starter of beer onions on toast with aged gruyère. It’s a frankly indecent snack, snaked with sloppy boozed-up ribbons of onions, the particularly...

‘Rose, for many people this is their idea of Hell,’ wrote my editor, his message flashing up obnoxiously on my phone. I smirked, and prepared to unleash my best Liza Minnelli vibrato along with 50 other delirious musical theatre fans. I don’t take back a word of the message I sent my editor that evening: ‘This is the best night of my life’.  Okay, maybe not the best (my wife made me write that) – but pretty goddamn close. And if you, like me, love showtunes, cocktails, and arguing over whether Idina or Cynthia hit those ‘Defying Gravity’ high notes best, then you need to make your West End debut here ASAP.  Named after a banger from Hamilton, The Room Where It Happens is inspired by New York’s famous Marie’s Crisis Café. The concept is simple and glorious: from 5pm, ‘resting’ professional musical theatre performers work as singer-servers, oscillating between taking orders and casually blasting diners with Sondheim, Lloyd Webber and Kander and Ebb’s finest. Guests can scan QR codes to request songs (in exchange for tips), and everyone is very much encouraged to sing along. Then at 9pm, the pianist continues playing for those who can’t yet call it curtains.  TRWIH sits at the top of a Soho townhouse once frequented by Oscar Wilde. It’s a shamelessly theatrical space; flickering fake candles illuminate a gilded gold ceiling; a camp red curtain drapes across the back wall and West End show posters hang proudly above cabaret-style tables. On my visit, eager musical fans of all...

Some pubs are a work of art, but Mayfair’s Audley Public House takes the idea to the next level. Iwan and Manuela Wirth, founders of the renowned Hauser and Wirth galleries, re-launched this impressive Victorian gin palace in 2022. And ‘impressive’ really is the word: here you’ll find a trippy ceiling mosaic from artist Phyllida Barlow and, in the Mount St. Restaurant upstairs, actual Andy Warhol and Lucien Freud paintings on the wall. It’s pretty intoxicating to neck humble pints in such proximity to artistic greatness, though naturally the pub’s food and drinks offering is pretty swish too. With poshed-up favourites (think pies and fish and chips) in the kitchen and beers from Battersea’s Sambrook’s Brewery behind the bar, it’s a feast for the eyes and tastebuds. Order this The Audley’s Scotch egg, perfectly gooey and served in two halves, sunny side up, should be on permanent display at the Tate. Time Out tip The Mount St Restaurant boasts four private dining rooms, including The Scottish Room, a Highlands-inspired creation that features a striking cluster of antlers affixed to the ceiling. Great Scott! RECOMMENDED: The best restaurants in Mayfair.

Not only does Five Points Brewery make great beer, it also has an excellent place to drink it. There’s a cosy tap room for colder days, and a courtyard for sunny evenings, where you can get well-acquainted with their beers and sample some BBQ treats. And if that wasn’t enough, on Thursday and Friday between 5pm and 7pm, you can get a pint of their freshest tank-beer for this bargainous price of £3.99. Good luck finding one that cheap anywhere else in Hackney that isn’t a ’spoons. Keep an eye on their Instagram for pop-up events, talks and festivals.

When it first opened back in 2012, Crate Brewery represented everything hipster-fied about Hackney Wick: there was a distinct warehouse-living vibe about the place and tats and beards featured heavily. Yet this beloved pizzeria and taproom has proved itself no mere passing fad. Located in the White Building, a former print factory and squat, the brewery consists of a tastefully whitewashed interior and outdoor seating that looks onto the bucolic Lea Navigation canal (or canalised river, to be exact, for the civil engineers out there). Most breweries are understandably less than ideal destinations for the non-beer lovers among us, but Crate bucks the trend with a good range of wines and canned cocktails. Whatever you order, though, the venue’s longevity proves that beer and pizza never goes out of fashion. Grab some planet-saving grub The site is also home to Silo, the world’s first zero-waste restaurant, and with a Michelin Green Star to prove it. They don’t even have a bin! Try their tasting menu to satisfy your stomach and your soul. Go low As well as that range of wine and canned cocktails, Crate also offers lo & no-alcohol beers, so you can save your head as well as the planet. RECOMMENDED: London’s best restaurants for pizza.

Keep your eyes peeled for this one: it’s sunk beneath Greek Street, accessed through a dodgy-looking doorway and a seriously scruffy staircase. If there’s a less salubrious introduction to a bar in London then, well, we’d like to see it. These days, the term ‘speakeasy’ is bandied about with reckless abandon by bar owners desperate to adorn their venue with an elusive, exclusive and illicit allure yet few are the genuine McCoy – not least because if you’re shouting about what you’re doing, then you’re not a genuine speakeasy. This old school drinking den and members club, however, is refreshingly free of any such affectation. It was formerly called Trisha’s (aka The Hideout), and there’s a small bar, a scattering of tables and chairs and pictures of boxers, mafia types and Italian football teams adorning the worn walls. There’s a very small courtyard out the back and only one proper lavatory. It looks like the kind of place where someone would get whacked in ‘The Sopranos’ – except there was an episode of ‘Emmerdale’ showing when we last went. True to a real speakeasy, the drink selection is pretty average. There are some bottled beers, a couple of wines and a quite random selection of spirits. The New Evaristo Club has some very devoted regulars. If they aren't entertainment enough, there are some jazz nights. And there’s always ‘Emmerdale’.

Do you like music? You’ll love the Beatles. Enjoy movies? Check out a little gem known as ‘The Godfather’. Fan of the dramatic arts? Do yourself a favour, mate: Shakespeare. Thank me later. Am I about to compare Noble Rot to Shakespeare? No! Kind of. It’s more that if you’re a fan of really nice food and wine you should definitely go to Noble Rot. It is a no-brainer. Anything I write after this point is garnish. When, one lunchtime, I walked into the Bloomsbury restaurant and wine bar, a blissful calm set over me, similar to how the barefoot pilgrim Louis IV must have felt on arriving at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres. Some divine harmony, running through the mellow decor, extending into the staff and finally through the menu and wine list. Everything is on point. Everything is nice. The bread is a Rush-esque power trio of carbohydrates: soda, focaccia, and sourdough selflessly working together to achieve a common goal. The slipsole - a kind of buttery, beautiful ellipse - may well be the restaurant’s special move. This fish is a soft and smokey wonder that refuses to not be eaten. Similarly charismatic were the comte beignets. Dusted in parmesan and served with pickled walnut ketchup (a more well-read and worldly Daddies Sauce), these bad boys made me flout my own ‘no more oily crispy things filled with hot goo’ rule. Crucially everything tasted of something. This shouldn’t be a remarkable quality in a restaurant, but how often have you paid through the nose for...

Bar Termini does two things: coffee and cocktails. Coffee is overseen by Marco Arrigo, head of quality for Illy, who has probably trained more baristas – and trained them rigorously – than anyone else in the UK. Cocktails are supervised by Tony Conigliaro, the alco-alchemist behind 69 Colebrooke Row and Zetter Town House, among others. Teams don’t get much dreamier than this. So, have they found a supersized venue to match the giant reputation? Ha ha ha. There’s room for 25, and seated service only, though you may stand if you order a single ‘espresso al bar’ for Italian-style drinking-and-running. The coffee list has just four brews, all of them classics but with a twist. The alcohol list has three negronis, four ‘aperitivi’, three wines, one bottled beer. There is also a small food offering: baked goods from L’Anima in Shoreditch by day, charcuterie and cheese in the evening. I went for coffee at lunchtime. The ‘espresso al tavola’ (they’ll explain what it means) was unusual but flawless. On my second visit later the same day, I had a marsala martini: Beefeater gin, sweet marsala, dry vermouth, almond bitters served straight-up. A model of simplicity and balance, this is one of the best cocktails in London. The tiny Bar Termini is likely to become a hot ticket; booking is advised but walk-ins are welcomed. The dream team has dreamt up a vision of a bar. 

The greatest thing about the scene here is that there is no scene. This basement bar, part of the Brasserie Zédel complex, is equally wonderful whether you’re treating it as a way-station en route to dinner, a nightcap-dispensary before heading home, or an evening’s entertainment all in itself (with terrific bar snacks). It’s also one of the loveliest bars in London, with an art deco look that’s changed little in decades of its existence (under various names). And just as lovely (and unchanging) is its approach to building a cocktail list: short, classic, no need to blind with science. The Martinez (vermouth, gin, maraschino, curaçao and orange bitters) is as good as we’ve had in London; and everything except champagne cocktails comes in at under £12. When people ask for a bar recommendation around Piccadilly Circus, we always raise the Américain flag.