Cocktail bars in London
38 cocktail bars in London, each one on the Guide on merit.
33's The Old Grocery Store
Cocktail bar · Harringay
A former Harringay Ladder grocer's reborn as a coffee-and-cocktails local, vintage fittings kept intact. Croissants and serious espresso by day, jazz on Thursdays by night.
Go for the coffee. Locals fussy about espresso rate it among the best around, and the croissants get singled out too.
392 Kingsland Road
Cocktail bar · Dalston
An all-killer cocktail bar with jazz nights, still flying under the radar on Kingsland Road.
Wednesday jazz nights need booking ahead, and the cocktails use herbs grown on the roof.
69 Colebrooke Row
Cocktail bar · Islington
Tony Conigliaro's 'bar with no name' in Islington, marked only by a lantern: a living-room-sized room turning out groundbreaking, seasonal cocktails. Book or hope for a stair seat.
It is tiny and unmarked; book a table and look for the lantern, not a sign.
A Bar with Shapes for a Name
Cocktail bar · Haggerston
Remy Savage's Bauhaus-minimal cocktail room on Kingsland Road, no bottles on show, a tight menu of classics and originals built from blind tastings. Cleverer than it lets on, and cheap for the quality.
Drinks are numbered, not named, and built to do one thing well; trust the list rather than asking for a classic.
All My Gods
Cocktail bar · Bethnal Green
A modern dive bar on Paradise Row, tapped and signature cocktails with a sly polish.
Go for the Martininator martini and skip the rest of the cocktail list.
Amaro Bar
Cocktail bar · Kensington
Seventh in the operator-voted UK Top 50 and still nobody photographs it. A quiet West London room where the bartenders are the reason to sit at the bar.
Around
Cocktail bar · Exmouth Market
A family-run Exmouth Market bar with a hidden garden and seasonal cocktails.
Walk to the back; the hidden garden is the whole point and most people miss it.
Beasy
Cocktail bar · Soho
A speakeasy-style cocktail bar hidden in a former Soho barbershop, low-lit and late.
Head down to the basement late, when the living-room space turns into a soundsystem.
Behind This Wall
Cocktail bar · Hackney Central
A basement bar with no menu, where you describe a mood and the drink gets built to match, all played through a sound system pieced from old Tannoy and JBL parts.
Service is all-seated and the room is small, so book. And do not look for a list, just say what you are in the mood for.
Black Parrot
Cocktail bar · City of London
A hidden Fleet Street lane bar with seven hundred-odd rums, blue walls and an 18-foot shuffleboard, open till 1am.
Find the unmarked Bride Court lane, then book the weekly masterclass for the full library walkthrough.
Bluethroat
Cocktail bar · Deptford
A Deptford cocktail bar doing serious drinks without the attitude. Dark and low-lit, made for a long sit.
Walk-ins only, and it is shut Sunday to Tuesday, so save it for the back half of the week.
Cato
Cocktail bar · Seven Dials
A serious cocktail bar from Bart & Taylor with Angelos Bafas, built on an all-UK-ingredient, colour-led menu. Real mixology in a tourist-heavy quarter, not a gimmick.
Order by colour and let the bartender explain what you are drinking.
Circle13
Cocktail bar · Hackney
A cocktail bar with a pétanque piste in the centre, opened by world championship player Monty Quaia and hospitality veteran Marc Sarton Du Jonchay under the railway arches on Hemsley Place. The drinks menu leads with zero-ABV highballs that can be upgraded with spirits. Chef Sean Donnelly serves rotating pintxos including charred leek with potato crisp and cider-caramelised onion croquetas.
Dang's
Cocktail bar · Spitalfields
A red-lit basement that does southern Thai fried chicken and cocktails properly, and stays open late.
Order the whole marinated chicken to share and get there via the side door rather than through Slurp.
Dive
Cocktail bar · Marylebone
A basement cocktail bar in Marylebone with DJs, a Berlin-built audio system, and cobalt surfaces throughout. The room is dark and carpeted floor to ceiling, and the energy shifts from early drinks to late-night house party as the evening progresses. Cocktails include classics by the carafe and signatures like The Soba, which mixes a noodle infusion with cognac and two sherries, plus seven martini variations with ingredients like blue cheese, chilli oil, and brioche gin.
Dropkick Jonnys
Cocktail bar · Richmond
A fifteen-seat Western-styled whisky room hidden above a Richmond pub, open three nights a week.
It only opens Thursday to Saturday and the room is tiny, so go early or plan ahead.
Floral Hall
Cocktail bar · Crouch End
A gorgeously fronted corner bar in Crouch End, built for cremant and heartfelt conversation.
Open Tuesday to Saturday only, and it closes at 11, so it is an early-evening rather than a late one.
goldfinch
Cocktail bar · Tooting
A tiny, flattering Tooting bar with a ten-pound negroni people cross the river for. Sit in the courtyard when it is warm.
Two cocktails for twelve pounds before 7pm, so arrive early.
Good Measure
Cocktail bar · Tooting
A basement of fifteen seats, lit by candles, pouring Taiwanese cocktails under a Tooting bao shop. Worth the squeeze.
Friday and Saturday only, walk-in, and you get in through the Daddy Bao dining room.
Kwãnt Mayfair
Cocktail bar · Mayfair
Erik Lorincz left the Savoy to open this low-lit Mayfair basement, and it shows in every drink. Tiki cues, serious technique, no fuss.
Book the corner room for Lorincz's full theatre rather than a perch at the bar.
Little Fires
Cocktail bar · Shoreditch
A moody Oaxacan mezcal bar with drinks from a World 50 Best team.
Eat upstairs first, then drop down to the basement Listening Lounge once it gets going.
Little Mercies
Cocktail bar · Crouch End
A low-lit, grown-up cocktail bar in a quiet pocket of north London. Serious about the drinks, without the members'-club airs.
Happy hour runs daily from 6 to 7pm with thirty per cent off drinks.
Lounge Bohemia
Cocktail bar · Shoreditch
A Soviet-kitsch bunker behind a kebab shop where cocktails arrive in lightbulbs and test tubes.
Booking only, message ahead, and never wear a suit. Go early in the week for the room to yourselves.
Lowcountry
Cocktail bar · Hoxton
A subterranean whisky-and-cocktail bar beneath Counter 71, inspired by the American South.
Head downstairs for the bar even if the sixteen-seat chef's table upstairs is booked out.
Murder Inc
Cocktail bar · Fitzrovia
A basement off Tottenham Court Road done out as a gangster-noir dive, with a ceiling papered in matchbooks and beer mats. Every cocktail is £11. Open since 2019, from the Cocktail Trading Company team.
Nancy's
Cocktail bar · London Bridge
Four floors up a brutalist block at London Bridge, open since June 2026, with a 2am licence at the end of the week. Negronis arrive on a trolley and you roll a dice to pick one of six. The produce comes off Borough Market downstairs.
Walk-ins are fine, but last entry is 45 minutes before close.
Ogam
Cocktail bar · Islington
A dimly lit Korean tapas bar on Chapel Market run by an award-winning mixologist. Craft cocktails with Korean twists sit alongside fried chicken, dumplings and dolsot bibimbap in sizzling stone bowls. For anyone who wants proper drinks with their small plates.
ONE75
Cocktail bar · West Hampstead
A neighbourhood cocktail bar with a summer garden you forget is on West End Lane. Stay late for the basement.
Aim for the back terrace once spring hits. They do not rush you out.
Rain Dogs Bar
Cocktail bar · Bethnal Green
A Tom Waits reference made real, all analog sound and lived-in leather. Stays open late at the weekend.
Bar seats are walk-in only, so reserve a table or roll the dice on a stool.
Satan's Whiskers
Cocktail bar · Bethnal Green
A Bethnal Green room that looks like a dive and pours like a classic cocktail bar. A daily menu, fresh juices, taxidermy on the walls and a hip-hop soundtrack. Walk-in.
No bookings, so arrive early in the evening or expect a wait, especially at weekends.
Ten to One Cocktail Bar & Kitchen
Cocktail bar · Tottenham
A Tottenham cocktail bar with proper drinks and a kitchen to match.
Head out to the back decking and time it for a Thursday live-music night.
The Coral Room
Cocktail bar · Bloomsbury
A grand salon bar inside The Bloomsbury Hotel, designed by Swedish architect Martin Brudnizk. Deep rouge walls, chandeliers, and Art Deco styling create a country house atmosphere in central London. Expensive cocktails and nibbles, but the setting delivers serious sophistication.
The Natural Philosopher
Cocktail bar · Hackney Road
A repair-shop door, a rotating set of whiskies, and no reason to rush home.
Come on a Wednesday for the whisky tasting, and book if you want one of the few seats.
The Royal Cocktail Exchange
Cocktail bar · Fitzrovia
A light room upstairs, a dark one below, and the people who know how to fill both your glasses.
Head downstairs to the basement for the moodier seats, and book at weekends.
The Sun Tavern
Cocktail bar · Bethnal Green
Raw brick, Irish whiskey and a wall of poitin you cannot get anywhere else.
Ask for a poitin if you have never tried it, the staff are built for this.
These Days
Cocktail bar · Bermondsey
A railway-arch spritz bar with St John bread and Neal's Yard cheese a few doors down.
Grab a seat outside the arch on a sunny afternoon and start with the Sundown Spritz.
Three Sheets
Cocktail bar · Dalston
World-class cocktails in a candlelit two-top room the size of a stamp.
The Dalston original is small and gets rammed, so arrive early or go midweek for a seat.
Umbrella Workshop
Cocktail bar · Boundary Estate
Twelve seats in a restored 1895 workshop off Boundary Street, run as the test kitchen for the group's other bars. The menu changes weekly and sometimes daily. The walls are lined with bottles you can buy, including what the group claims is the largest poitín selection in the country.
Twelve seats and no obvious frontage, so book and give yourself time to find the door.
Questions
Where in London are these cocktail bars?
The most are in Bethnal Green (4) and Crouch End (2), and the rest are across 27 more areas.
Does anyone pay to be on this page?
No. Nothing on the Guide is a paid placement.
Is this list kept up to date?
The page is built from the live Guide, so a place that closes or leaves the Guide leaves this page too.
How are the places chosen?
How the Guide picks places is set out in How Vana chooses.
The whole Guide is in the app, and it is free.
A free, independent guide to London. Nothing here is a paid placement.