A Saturday late set at Oriole in Covent Garden carries an £18 cover charge before you have drunk anything. The same room on a Tuesday is £4. At Big Easy, three sites and live music every single day, the cover charge is nothing at all.
That is the whole decision, and almost no guide to live music in London mentions it. The bands are not the variable. The door is.
So this page is organised by what you pay for the music rather than by postcode, because a cover charge is the thing that turns a casual drink into a planned evening.
The bars that charge a cover, and exactly what it is
A cover charge is not a door fee in the nightclub sense. At the good rooms it is a music charge, it is added to your bill rather than taken at the entrance, and it goes to the people playing.
Oriole, Covent Garden
7 to 9 Slingsby Place, in St Martin’s Courtyard, two minutes from Covent Garden station. Live jazz, blues and world music Tuesday to Saturday, and it publishes its entire cover table, which is rare enough to be worth quoting in full.
Tuesday £4. Wednesday £6. Thursday £8. Friday and Saturday £12. The late set adds £6 on top. The sets run at eight and quarter past nine every night, with the late one at half ten on Friday and Saturday.
So the range across a week is £4 to £18 for the same room and the same format. If the music is the point and the budget matters, Tuesday is the answer and it is not a lesser night.
The set times are published to the minute: 20:00 to 20:45 and 21:15 to 22:00, with a Friday and Saturday late set from 22:30 to 23:30. Turning up at half past eight means walking in during a break.
Two more things Oriole states plainly. It does not sell tickets for live music at all, so booking a table is the only way to guarantee a seat. And special events can carry a higher cover or require a ticket, so check the individual listing rather than assuming the table above.
The two floors keep different hours. The ground floor Bamboo Bar runs Tuesday and Wednesday 3pm to 11pm and Thursday to Saturday midday to midnight. The basement restaurant runs Tuesday 7pm to 11pm, Wednesday and Thursday 6pm to midnight, and Friday and Saturday 6pm to 1am. The late set is a weekend thing and it needs the basement.
Nightjar, Shoreditch
129 City Road, down into a basement, and fifteen years at the front of London’s cocktail scene. Live music runs seven nights a week, which is more than anywhere else on this page.
Its cover charge is not published as a table, but the bar states what it is for: a cover charge applies and it goes straight to the musicians. Walk-ins are accepted and booking is recommended, which in practice means the queue is real, and because the music is every night the queue is every night too.
This is the room to pick if you want the drinks to be as serious as the band. The best cocktail bars in London covers why Nightjar sits near the top of that list as well.
The places with live music and no cover at all
Big Easy: Covent Garden, King’s Road and Canary Wharf
Three sites, and it says in its own words that it hosts live music in London every day. Rock, blues, jazz and soul across the week, against American barbecue and seafood.
This is the answer when you want music in the background rather than a booking built around a set time, and when you are feeding people rather than drinking cocktails. There is no music cover charge, because the model is a restaurant that happens to have a band rather than a venue that sells the band.
It is also the practical answer for a group with a wide range of ages or budgets, because nobody is paying £18 to sit down.
Boisdale of Canary Wharf
Cabot Square. Ticketed live music in the main restaurant, with four private dining rooms, the Hine Bar and its heated garden terrace, a whisky bar and a Cuban cigar library. It is closed on Mondays.
That combination makes it the one place on the Canary Wharf estate that feels like an evening rather than a meal, which matters in a district that empties out after work. Our Canary Wharf restaurants guide covers the rest of the estate, and the cigar lounges explain why that terrace is a terrace and not a room.
The jazz institution, and the cheaper way into it
Ronnie Scott’s, Soho
47 Frith Street, W1D 4HT, and it bills itself as London’s world famous jazz club since 1959. It is the one name everybody knows and the one that sells out.
The thing most guides miss is that it runs more than one kind of show. Alongside the main billing there is a Late Late Show, and a separate Late Late Show Upstairs strand, which is where the newer UK jazz groups play. Those are the shows that are still available when the headline evening has gone, and they are the reason to keep checking a sold out week.
It also runs a membership scheme, and some of its shows are ticketed through other venues entirely, so a show appearing sold out on one site is not always sold out.
How to choose, in one line each
For the best drinks with the music: Nightjar, seven nights a week.
For the cheapest live music in a serious room: Oriole on a Tuesday, £4.
For no cover charge and a group to feed: Big Easy, any day.
For actual jazz: Ronnie Scott’s, and look at the Late Late Shows rather than only the main billing.
For an evening rather than a meal, east of the City: Boisdale of Canary Wharf.
What to know before you book
Ask whether there is a cover charge and what it is for that night. It changes by day of the week at Oriole by a factor of four and a half. Nobody will volunteer it.
Book the table, not the music. Oriole does not sell music tickets and Nightjar takes walk-ins, so the reservation is the only lever you have. At Ronnie Scott’s it is the opposite: the show is ticketed and the table is the upgrade.
Read the set times, not the opening times. Oriole’s sets run 20:00 to 20:45 and 21:15 to 22:00. Arriving at nine puts you in the interval, which is a strange way to spend the money.
The late set is a weekend thing. Friday and Saturday only at Oriole, and it costs £6 more.
Everything here was taken from each venue’s own published pages in September 2026. Oriole publishes its cover charges and set times in full and those are quoted exactly. Nightjar confirms it charges a cover and that it goes to the musicians but does not publish the figure. Cover charges change, so confirm when you book.
Where to go next
The best cocktail bars in London covers Nightjar and Oriole on the strength of the drinks rather than the bands, and the hidden bars cover the same two rooms alongside the ones built around being hard to find.
The comedy clubs are the other live evening with a door charge, and one of them runs free shows seven nights a week. London after dark covers what is still open once the last set finishes, which is a shorter list than the city’s reputation suggests.
Everything sits inside our main London guide.
Questions we get asked
Which London bars have live music?
Nightjar at 129 City Road in Shoreditch runs live music seven nights a week, which is the most of any bar on this list, and its cover charge goes straight to the musicians. Oriole in St Martin’s Courtyard, Covent Garden, runs live jazz, blues and world music Tuesday to Saturday with a published cover charge. Big Easy hosts live music every day across Covent Garden, King’s Road and Canary Wharf with no cover charge at all, and Boisdale of Canary Wharf sells ticketed live music in its main restaurant, closed on Mondays.
Do London live music bars charge a cover?
Some do and some do not, and the difference is large. Oriole publishes a full table: 4 pounds on Tuesday, 6 on Wednesday, 8 on Thursday, 12 on Friday and Saturday, with the late set adding 6 more, so a Saturday late set is 18 pounds a head. Nightjar applies a cover every night and states it goes straight to the musicians. Big Easy charges no cover at all, because it is a restaurant with a band rather than a venue selling the band.
Which London restaurants have live music?
Big Easy is the most reliable, with live music every day across three sites at Covent Garden, King’s Road and Canary Wharf, serving American barbecue and seafood with no music cover charge. Boisdale of Canary Wharf on Cabot Square sells ticketed live music in its main restaurant, alongside the Hine Bar, a whisky bar and a cigar library, and it is closed on Mondays. Oriole has a basement restaurant under its Covent Garden bar, open from 6pm Wednesday to Saturday, where the cover charge does apply.
What is the cheapest way to see live music in London?
Go on a Tuesday. At Oriole the cover charge is 4 pounds on a Tuesday against 12 on a Friday or Saturday, and 18 for a Saturday late set, for the same room and the same format. Big Easy charges no cover on any day. Ronnie Scott’s Late Late Show and Late Late Show Upstairs strands are the cheaper and more available end of that club’s programme, and they are where the newer UK jazz groups play.
Can you get into Ronnie Scott’s without booking?
Treat it as a ticketed show rather than a bar, because it sells out. The useful thing to know is that it programmes more than the headline evening: there is a Late Late Show and a separate Late Late Show Upstairs strand, and those are frequently still available when the main billing has gone. Some shows are also ticketed through other venues, so a week that looks sold out on one site is not always sold out. It is at 47 Frith Street in Soho and has been since 1959.
What time does live music start in London bars?
Earlier than people expect, which is why they miss it. Oriole publishes its set times to the minute: 20:00 to 20:45 and 21:15 to 22:00, with a Friday and Saturday late set from 22:30 to 23:30. Arriving at nine o’clock lands you in the interval. Nightjar runs music seven nights and takes walk-ins, so there the constraint is the queue rather than the clock.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 151 in the guide.
Last checked 28 September 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
