Bars
London’s best bars, judged on the drinks and the room rather than the door policy. Cocktail bars, rooftops, hidden bars, wine tastings and the cigar terraces, with the cover charges and time limits most guides leave out.
Read moreRead less
The time limit is the thing that catches people. A table at a busy cocktail bar or a rooftop often comes with ninety minutes or two hours attached, and where it does the rule usually sits in the booking terms rather than anywhere you would read before arriving. Where a bar sets one, the page says so.
The hidden bars are the other place published information goes wrong, because a room that trades on being hard to find has every reason to keep its address vague and no particular reason to keep its hours current.
Soho holds the densest drinking in Britain inside about half a square mile. The cigar terraces are the small and heavily regulated end of all this, and wine tasting the part you can do in daylight.
Alcotraz: Bring a Bottle, but It Has to Be Sealed
The closed bottle policy, the jumpsuit you change into, and the five sentences a day with step-free access.
Cé La Vi London Publishes Almost No Rules
No dress code, no age policy, no booking terms and no closing time on its own site. What the booking platforms say instead, and the Golden Hour conflict.
Oriole Charges £4 for Live Music on a Tuesday and £18 on a Saturday
The bands are not the variable in London's live music bars. The cover charge is, and it swings by a factor of four and a half across one week in the same room. Big Easy, with music every day across three sites, charges nothing at all.
The Best Wine Bars in London, Checked Against What They Actually Publish
Six London wine bars sorted by the evening you want rather than by ranking, with the booking rules, kitchen cut-offs and corkage figures each one publishes itself.
The Best Bars and Pubs in Soho, Sorted by How You Get In
Nine rooms checked at source and sorted by how you get into them, because in Soho that is the only sorting that helps. Half the best bars take no bookings at all.
Cigar Lounges in London: Where You Can Still Smoke
Every London cigar lounge is a terrace, not a room, and the law explains why. Where to smoke properly, and what the 2026 Act actually changed.
London Speakeasies: The Good Ones and the Gimmicks
London's hidden bars, honestly rated. Which are serious cocktail bars, which are theatre, and the cover charges and time limits nobody mentions.
Wine Tasting in London: Classes, Flights and Day Trips
Guided tastings, self-pour bars, WSET courses and the one vineyard you can reach by train. What each actually costs, and two traps to avoid.
By area
2 neighbourhoodsThe neighbourhood guides that cover this, with the number of venues each one checks. Every address, price and opening time in them was taken from the venue's own published information.
Elsewhere in the guide
Questions we get asked
What time do bars close in London?
Most close at 11pm or midnight. A minority hold late licences to 2am or 3am, and those are concentrated in Soho, Shoreditch and Mayfair. Hotel bars are the reliable late option in central London and will serve you without a reservation.
Do London bars have a dress code?
Hotel bars and members' clubs do, and enforce it. Most others do not, but the door will still read you: no sportswear, no shorts, no ripped denim will clear anywhere in the city that checks. Trainers are the usual point of failure.
Can you walk into London's best cocktail bars?
Often, if you go early. Many of the rooms that are impossible at 9pm are half empty at 6pm and take walk ins until they fill. The bar counter at a restaurant is the other reliable way in: it usually takes no reservations and serves the full list.