Cigar Lounges in London: Where You Can Still Smoke

Every cigar lounge in a London hotel or bar is a terrace. Not one of them is the panelled, leather-armchaired room the phrase suggests, and this is not a matter of fashion. It is a matter of law, and once you understand the rule you can read any venue’s website and know immediately whether you will be warm. The only indoor rooms belong to the tobacconists, under a separate exemption explained below.

Rechecked on 28 September 2026

All five venues below are confirmed operating. The Lanesborough’s Garden Room has completed its relaunch and now publishes its hours and its house rules. Boisdale is trading in both Belgravia and Canary Wharf, which its own site confirms. The Wellesley’s terrace is listed on Marriott’s site with its hours, and James J Fox is trading in St James’s.

The law below is the durable part of this page. The Health Act 2006 and the regulations made under it have not changed, which is why the terraces are still terraces.

Why the hotel lounges are all terraces

The Health Act 2006 made it an offence to smoke in premises that are enclosed or substantially enclosed and open to the public. The definition of substantially enclosed is set out in regulations made the same year, and it is precise.

Premises are substantially enclosed if they have a ceiling or roof and the openings in the walls add up to less than half the wall area. Windows, doors and anything else that can be shut do not count as openings. This is generally called the 50 per cent rule.

So a legal cigar terrace under a roof must leave at least half its wall area permanently open to the air. It can have a roof. It cannot be solidly walled over more than half of its sides.

Two consequences follow, and they explain everything you will encounter:

The heating is the whole design problem. A room that is half open in a London January is cold, which is why the good lounges spend heavily on underfloor heating, overhead heaters, fireplaces and blankets. Where a venue lists its heating in detail, that is not marketing, it is telling you it has solved the actual problem.

Watch out for the awning. The regulations define a roof to include any fixed or moveable structure capable of covering the premises, and they name a canvas awning specifically. Pulling a canopy across an open courtyard can turn a lawful smoking area into an unlawful one. This is why some terraces have fixed, permanently open sides rather than anything that closes in bad weather.

There is one indoor exception, and it belongs to the tobacconists. Regulations made in 2007 exempt the shop of a specialist tobacconist while customers are sampling cigars and pipe tobacco, provided the room is walled floor to ceiling, does not ventilate into smoke-free premises, has doors onto smoke-free areas that close mechanically, and is marked as a place where smoking is permitted. That is how James J Fox runs an indoor sampling lounge on St James’s Street, and why no hotel bar can copy it.

What the 2026 Act actually changed

The Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026 and has been widely and loosely reported. Here is what it does.

It creates a rolling generational ban on sale. Nobody born on or after 1 January 2009 will ever legally be sold tobacco in this country. The age of sale rises by one year every year from 2027, so the affected cohort never ages into eligibility. The restrictions take effect on 1 January 2027.

It does not close cigar lounges, and it does not affect anyone born before 2009 who wishes to buy or smoke a cigar. It is a law about who may be sold tobacco, defined by date of birth, not a law about where smoking may happen. The smoke-free rules above are what govern the terraces, and those are unchanged by the Act, though it does give ministers powers to extend smoke-free protections in certain public places.

In practice, if you are old enough to be reading this as a customer, nothing about your evening changes. Expect to be asked for identification more often and more insistently as 2027 approaches.

Where to go

The Garden Room, The Lanesborough

Hyde Park Corner. The most serious cigar offering in London and the one to pick if you are choosing on the cigars rather than the room.

A covered terrace open year round, with a fireplace, heaters and blankets. The list runs to Cuban and pre-Castro stock kept in a walk-in humidor, and there is a spirit-led drinks list built around pairing, including a collection of rare Cognacs and Armagnacs.

The 2026 relaunch is finished and the permanent space is open, Monday to Saturday from 5pm to 2am, and on Sundays and bank holidays from 5pm to midnight. This page previously told you to check whether it was operating; it is.

The hotel also runs cigar masterclasses with its Head of Cigars, Yeni Momblan, so it is worth looking at what is on rather than only booking a table. The house rules are now published. Non-residents have a minimum spend of £50 a head after 9pm, and from 9pm at least half of any party must buy a cigar. You cannot bring cigars from elsewhere, and cigarettes are not allowed.

The Cigar Terrace, The Wellesley

11 Knightsbridge, on the corner at Hyde Park Corner. A heated terrace with leather seats, built for use in any weather, and a humidor the hotel bills as Europe’s largest collection of cigars. Open from 11am to 2am, and until 3am on Friday and Saturday.

They do not take reservations, according to Marriott’s own listing for the terrace. You walk in. That makes this the most useful entry on the page for an unplanned evening, and it is worth knowing given how much of London now requires a booking. The masterclass is the exception to the walk in rule: two to three hours and two cigars with the hotel’s cigar experts, from £300 a head, arranged by email.

One correction for anyone searching: the hotel is now part of Marriott’s Luxury Collection and its old standalone website no longer exists. It has not closed, whatever a dead link suggests.

Boisdale of Belgravia

A hidden cigar terrace above the Macdonald Bar, done in tartan with sofas and armchairs, with heaters, an awning and cashmere blankets in winter and room for 40. It is attached to a Scottish restaurant with a serious whisky list, a Negroni bar, and live music every night from Monday to Saturday plus a jazz Sunday lunch.

This is the one to choose if the cigar is part of a long evening rather than the object of it. Dinner, music and a terrace in one building is a rarer combination than it ought to be.

Boisdale of Canary Wharf

Two Art Deco floors overlooking Cabot Square, with the Hine Bar and a heated garden terrace, four private dining rooms, a Cuban cigar library and shop, and what they call one of the UK’s largest whisky bars.

Bigger and less clubbable than Belgravia, and the better choice for a group. Note that Boisdale now lists two London sites; if you have an older guide pointing you to a City or Mayfair branch, check before setting off.

James J Fox, St James’s

19 St James’s Street, and the shop you should buy from. It is also the one indoor room on this page: a first floor sampling lounge for up to 27, first come first served with no booking, where you smoke a cigar bought in the shop, as the tobacconists’ exemption allows.

The history is exceptional even by St James’s standards. Robert Lewis began trading tobacco on this street in 1787. James J Fox was founded separately in Dublin in 1881 and opened in London in 1947, and the two merged in September 1992. Churchill was a customer, as was Oscar Wilde, and the Freddie Fox Museum in the basement, open in shop hours from Monday to Saturday, keeps cigar cases that belonged to Churchill and a High Court letter over an unpaid Wilde account.

They also run the cigar counters at Harrods and Selfridges, so if you have bought a cigar in either, you have bought from Fox.

Practical notes

Ring ahead about the weather. At least half open is a legal requirement, not a design preference. In deep winter the difference between a terrace with underfloor heating and one with a patio heater is the difference between two hours and twenty minutes.

Ask about minimum spend. Hotel terraces frequently apply one to non-residents. At the Lanesborough it is £50 a head after 9pm, and it is easier to know first.

Buy where they store properly. A cigar kept badly is a wasted cigar. Every room above keeps a proper humidor, the Lanesborough’s a walk-in one, which is the reason to buy from them rather than from a bar that keeps a box behind the counter.

Allow longer than you think. A full-size cigar is an hour or more. This is not a quick stop on the way somewhere.

Everything here was checked against venue sources and the legislation itself, and rechecked on 28 September 2026. Terraces refurbish and hotels rebrand, so confirm before travelling.

Where to go next

For the drink to go with it, the best cocktail bars in London and the best bars in London cover the rooms, several of which are a short walk from St James’s. Wine tasting in London covers the other end of a considered evening.

If dinner comes first, London’s Michelin starred restaurants covers the Mayfair and St James’s rooms, and our main London guide has everything else.

Questions we get asked

Why are London's cigar lounges outdoors?

The law, not fashion. Smoking is prohibited in enclosed and substantially enclosed public spaces, and a covered terrace counts as substantially enclosed if the openings in its walls add up to less than half the wall area, which is generally called the 50 per cent rule. That is why some terraces have fixed, permanently open sides rather than anything that can be closed in bad weather. The one indoor exception is the shop of a specialist tobacconist, where customers may sample cigars and pipe tobacco, which is how James J Fox runs its sampling lounge.

Do you need to book a London cigar terrace?

Not everywhere. The Wellesley’s Cigar Terrace takes no reservations at all, which makes it the most useful entry for an unplanned evening, and the James J Fox sampling lounge is first come first served. The Lanesborough’s Garden Room takes bookings and publishes its rules: non-residents have a minimum spend of 50 pounds a head after 9pm, and from 9pm at least half of any party must buy a cigar.

Can you use a London cigar terrace in winter?

Yes, and the heating is what decides whether it is bearable. In deep winter the difference between a terrace with underfloor heating and one with a patio heater is the difference between two hours and twenty minutes. Ask which it is before you travel, because the terraces are open to the weather by law rather than by choice.