Any bar that has ‘and’ in the middle of its name is always going to have connotations of a big traditional boozer, or one of its modern, trendier incarnations. Rose and Crown, Slug and Lettuce… you get my drift.

So, it was a surprise to find the Shrub and Shutter is none of those things. In fact it was a surprise to find it at all, because it’s all too easy to walk or drive past a couple of times before you realize you’ve arrived at this gem of a bar in the heart of buzzing, bustling Brixton.

Now, I am fast coming to the conclusion that there are two kinds of ‘best’ bars – the glitzy grand hotel bar and the small, personal variety, run with love, attention and humour by owners and fellow bar lovers.

And that’s the Shrub and Shutter for you… small, but perfectly formed with delicious food and drink served by well-informed, friendly staff under the expert ownership of Dave Tregenza and Chris Edwards. All of whom are only too happy to talk you through the varied and creative cocktail menu featuring funny, fresh and frankly quite bizarre ingredients including gunpowder.

At the time we visited a new series of Game of Thrones was about to kick off and the Shrub and Shutter had created some specially themed cocktails to celebrate the occasion. So, more a case of GoT than G&T. Fortunately for me that meant a proper pewter tankard foaming at the top with majestically medieval ingredients.

We also tried a literally smoking, Milk of the Poppy with a Dragon’s Egg. All of this was complemented with plates of delicious bar food prepared in the impossibly tiny, but obviously very competent kitchen.

The bar quickly filled up as the evening wore on, so we were thankful we had arrived early and were warming up to stay late until we realized bedtimes beckoned. We will certainly return to Coldharbour Lane, because despite the address, the warmest of welcomes will be waiting.

336 Coldharbour Lane
Brixton
London
SW9 8QH

www.theshrubandshutter.com

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Of course, as you might expect from people dedicated to bars, cocktails are our thing. Beer has been a bit of a mystery to us… especially those real ales beloved of your original beardy CAMRA types who proudly sported the hirsute look long before hipsters stole their whole vibe.

But when you’re taking out Uncle Rory – whose love of beards and chunky sweaters is only matched by his capacity for sinking ‘proper’ beer – you have to find a bar that gives you the best of all worlds. Which is why we found ourselves at the Draft House on Northcote Road in Clapham’s ‘Nappy Valley’.

The Draft House is one of a small chain of pubs dedicated to, as the name suggests, real beers. Some of these are so good they are more like “witchcraft” rather than craft. They certainly had the power to alter reality. The staff were helpful and knowledgeable about their wares which range from beers, stouts and lager on draught to a wide variety of bottled beers from Britain and around the world. I mean where else would you find a powerful bottle of beer that delights under the name of Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter?

I tried a delicious stout called Camden Ink which made a welcome change from the ubiquitous Guinness. Uncle Rory supped on local Wandle Ale. Also on offer was a very interesting little gin shot called an Up and Under – made by the Draft House Crew in honour of the 6 nations and infused with botanicals representing each of the competitor nations. It had the faint aroma of bubble bath – no doubt due to the herbal essences in it, but tasted delicious.

Beer is filling, but real food sometimes needs to be taken on board too. So it is fortunate that the Draft House has a fully functioning restaurant serving up a variety of hearty food. We dined on chilli hot dogs, ably accompanied with chips and delicious ‘foot-long pork scratchings’. All in all, a warmly welcoming and thoroughly enjoyable destination that even us fancy bar lovers love.

The Draft House, Clapham
94 Northcote Road,
London
SW11 6QW

www.drafthouse.co.uk

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Now the Hixter bar in Southwark is good for lots of reasons. It’s stylish, chic, dark, sexy and it’s got a large sunken bar with low bar stools around it that make you feel the size of a giant and the bar staff the size of Oompa Loompas (although they’re much better looking, much friendlier and much better informed when it comes to creating and dishing up delicious drinks.)

The drinks are great, as you’d expect from a bar crated by Mark Hix, one of the leading lights of London’s restaurant and bar scene. A refreshing Innis Gunn Scottish lager, aged in whiskey barrels provided instant refreshment and banished thoughts of McEwans from my mind for ever.

As it was a cold, wet and windy night outside, and the faint whispers of Scotch were already floating around in my head, Marks Mr Nice cocktail followed, a warm, syrupy and fortifying mixture of peaty Talisker single malt whiskey, Pedro Ximenez sherry and orange bitters.

But back to the bar… what I really liked about it more than anything was that my mobile didn’t work within its basement boundaries. Which means no one to call with unwelcome requests to get on with work… and no calls about that PPI fortune that’s just waiting for you to claim. Instead you can just kick back, sink into a soft, welcoming leather sofa and take a break from the world outside as it rushes by.

Of course, the bar gets busy on occasions, as it should do… In trendy ‘Bankside’, formerly known as Southwark, it’s got everything a hipster would love – including a genuine bar billiards table. So, expect a certain degree of trendy beardiness, creative artistry and media luvviness. But that’s no bad thing, it’s bright young sparks like this that keep the London bar scene going strong. They may feel a little lost without their mobile connection, but there’s always WiFi, so they won’t get withdrawal symptoms while the rest of us enjoy our night of booze, billiards and bonhomie.

HIXTER BANKSIDE is at
16 Great Guildford Street,
SE1 0HS

 www.hixterbankside.co.uk

Tags: bars in london, Bars in SE1, Best Bars London, hixter bankside, mark his, marks bar

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Bars are going up in the world. No self-respecting skyscraper can hold its head up in polite company without its own swanky drinking hole/come restaurant boasting sweeping views over the city below.

London is full of them, from The Shard to Millbank Tower, all vie with each other on the views front. But with so many bars with breath-taking vistas, what separates the giants from the pygmies?

I suppose it’s a matter of taste – and if there’s one thing that City Social has in abundance it’s taste. Still relatively new amongst the pantheon of sky-high bars it sits on the 42nd floor of what was once the Nat West Tower, but which has now be rechristened Tower 42.

Down on ground level it has it’s own entrance where you get the first inkling of the experience waiting above. This initial retro look it slightly belied by the brightly illuminated lift that propels you to your destination, but once you arrive you are immediately immersed into a pageant of dark and decadent art deco style embellished with just a touch of gold leaf glamour.

If you visit after the sun has set you’ll find its dark in here, really, dark. And that’s good because it makes the amazing views of the city that surrounds all the more impressive. And it encourages louche be habitué amongst the luxury. The bar itself occupies a central position and patrons are welcome to prop it up. But most opt for a window seat or one of the wide semi circular booths that ring the room and provide a perfect home for larger parties.

As there were just the two of us we opted for a table for two by the window and for a while just sat admiring the brightly lit city views and repeating skyscraper cliches along the lines of ‘gosh, the buses down there look like toys’ and ‘the people are as small as ants’.

The well informed and very helpful waiter then talked us through the cocktail menu and pointed us in the direction of appropriately refreshing concoctions. A Cocchi Buck served in a small pewter tankard was suitably stimulating, whilst a Forest Rum was an amusingly sophisticated treat. Delectable plates of grilled squid, pork empanadas and spicy prawn crackers helped take the edge of our hunger and were rounded off by a glasses of Rittenhouse Rye that the ever helpful waiter kindly directed us towards.

So, our verdict? A big up for City Social. Dark, decadent, delicious and undeniably glamorous.

City Social is at 
Tower 42,
25 Old Broad Street,
London
EC2N 1HQ

www.citysociallondon.com

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Bourne and Hollingsworth Buildings, or B&H for short, is a relatively new addition to a well-loved stable of eclectic and eccentric bars that include Bourne and Hollingsworth’s eponymous basement bar in the West End, The Reverend WJ Simpson and the Blitz Bar.

The new Bourne and Hollingsworth Buildings are on a slightly larger scale, encompassing a bar, brasserie, conservatory and private rooms. Styled on an English country house, the overall effect is effortlessly elegant, tasteful and tranquil… even when it’s busy and bustling. It’s light, airy, comfortable and to us, seems a little bit cool colonial. Imagine an empire-era, jewel in the crown, ex-pat club with eclectic modern touches and accents.

Bars are our thing and we love the one here… its got a character all it’s own that goes against the grain of many of its contemporaries. It’s not a bar for secret liaisons, it has no dark corners for illicit trysts. It’s not expensively anodyne like so many hotel bars. Nor following a formula like so many chains. And it’s not a low down dirty drinking den (much as we like them as well).

It’s a bar for lounging louchely in. Apart from the seats at the bar, it’s all low cocktail chairs and banquettes, ideal for slowly settling into with friends over a few drinks. And those drinks are very, very moreish. The cocktails, whether they are the bar’s own renowned creative concoctions or classic recipes, are all carefully prepared by knowledgeable staff.

As a nod to the dryathlon we started with one alcoholic and one non- alcoholic cocktail. Of course, I had the onerous task of downing the full strength option, a delicious tequila, mescal and cucumber combination. It was refreshingly light and lethally lovely, instantly banishing any bad memories that drinking too much Mexican spirit too quickly in my younger years had created. My companion was on the winter wagon, so the bartender kindly created a bespoke mocktail that mixed grapefruit juice, green tea puree, cucumber and lime in perfectly delicious proportions.

The say the more the merrier and this is certainly true when you are drinking cocktails. We didn’t want to leave, and as always we wanted to return immediately. It got us thinking that in the old days when B&H was mentioned it was normally in relation to a certain brand of cigarette. Now B&H is simply one of our favourite bars – but when all’s said and done it’s still smoking.

Bourne & Hollingsworth Buildings is at 
42 Northampton Road
Clerkenwell
EC1R 0HU

www.bourneandhollingsworth.com/bandbuildings/

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London is not just a city blessed with great bars. It’s a city brimming with clubs… from the old and esteemed such as Whites and Boodles, to the new and trendy such as Soho House and The Library. There are clubs for Ex Public School boys, artists, actors, writers, media types, motorists, bankers, directors, hipsters and heavy drinkers.

And there are still great, old established clubs that most people won’t know about, but which remain warm, welcoming and still very grand havens from the hustle and bustle of London life. The Lansdowne Club is one of these. Its delightful C18^th Robert Adam designed home close to Berkeley Square, was once owned by Gordon Selfridge, founder of the eponymous department store.

As a club with a penchant for the sporting world, one of its crowing glories, added shortly after it became a club in the 1930s, is an exquisite art deco basement swimming pool. Of course you ‘ll have to be lucky enough to have a friend who is a member – or to be a member yourself – to enjoy a plunge in their pool. If you do, you can then relax and reward yourself for your physical endeavours with a drink in their Aqua Bar.

The balcony of the Lansdowne Aqua Bar overlooks the 25 metre pool and both have been scrupulously maintained with all their stunning original 1930s features. While the Aqua bar offers a simple food and drinks menu, the view of the amazing pool with keen types ploughing lengths up and down is truly invigorating.

If you want a wider selection of high quality cocktails you can retire to the Lansdowne’s Round Room and if you need some sustenance to soak it all up a formal gourmet experience is available in the dining room.

So, we heartily recommend you cultivate a friendship with a member and experience life in clubland. And, if you can spare the quite reasonable membership costs and meet the entrance criteria, you could even make it a home from home in the heart of the West End.

www.lansdowneclub.com

The Lansdowne Club is at
9 Fitzmaurice Place
Mayfair, London
W1J 5JD

Tags: aqua bar, bar reviews, best swims london, lansdowne club, london bars

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In that 1980s ode to excess that is Pretty Woman, Richard Gere’s character, before taking prostitute-with-a-heart-of-gold Vivienne to the Opera, spins her some line about people either loving or hating the Opera the first time they see it. Fair enough, you just better hope your first opera isn’t Tosca, an opera of monumental sadness even within a genre that specialises in tragedy.

But one thing I can safely say about the opera is that if you visit the Paul Hamlyn Hall Champagne Bar at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden you will love it forever. It is simply stunning… and what’s more stunning is that so few people actually know that Joe Public doesn’t have to book a ticket to the Opera to enjoy it.

So, why the song and dance about the bar? Well, it’s in an amazing space. An enormous, towering atrium protected and illuminated by a vaulted glass ceiling high overhead. The bar itself sits at one end of this impressive space beneath a vast, optical illusion inducing mirror. Not only does this seem to double the already generous space, but high above, it gives the impression that the pod like amphitheatre bar is suspended in mid air with no discernible means of entry other than a pair of wings.

This is a champagne bar and in this glorious space, within one of London’s cultural powerhouses, that is only appropriate. Fine fizz of all types is available by the glass or bottle. If you have an appetite for food as well as champagne and culture, surrounding the bar on the mezzanine floor is the excellent Amphitheatre Restaurant and Bar.

If you’ve never been, make sure this is on your to-do list. It’s a magical, memorable place for a drink… with or without the opera thrown in. And while you raise a glass, you should also offer a toast in memory of the late publisher Paul Hamlyn, who gifted the Royal Opera House £10 million to refurbish this breathtakingly beautiful space.

Open for special events or book for afternoon tea

The Champagne bar at the Royal Opera House is at

Royal Opera House
Bow Street
Covent Garden
London
WC2E 9DD

 www.roh.org.uk/visit/restaurants-and-bars

Tags: bars in Covent Garden, Bars London, Best Bars London, Paul Hamlyn bar, royal opera house

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St Pancras International Station –

What better way to prepare yourself for a trip to Paris than taking on board a few glasses of champagne? And what better place to do that than the stunningly appointed Searcy’s champagne bar? Occupying a prime position overlooking the grandly refurbished St Pancras International Station this polished establishment proudly boasts the longest bar in Europe at a horizon-busting 98m.

When we visited on a Friday afternoon the bar was surprisingly quiet. We had expected to see a throng of weekend wanderers ready to set off for Paris for romantic assignations… or at least a contingent of French tax exiles making their way back home for a few days to remind themselves what proper cheese tastes like. Perhaps it’s that long bar… anywhere else and the number of people might have constituted a crowd. Here, with its endless bar and the cathedral like glazed roof overhead, the drinkers seemed few and far between.

But hey, I love champagne… And having room to breath while I drink… And somewhere to sit… And an amazing view whichever way you look… And a special offer on decent champagne at £6 a glass. So, even if you’re not travelling it’s well worth a visit. You can always imagine yourself about to set off on an exciting journey into the heart of Europe, even if the only trip beckoning is the one home to Walthamstow on the Victoria Line.

This bar is to all intents and purposes, outside… even though the massive vaulted canopy overhead lulls you into thinking otherwise. So, when the weather gets cold, it won’t just be your champagne that gets chilled. However, the clever people at Searcy’s have thought of this and provide fan heaters and blankets to keep the temperature as warm as the ambience.

Just one word of warning. Large quantities of champagne can alter the fabric of space/time and it can be all too easy to miss your evening train to Paris or the last tube to Pimlico.

Searcys Champagne Bar
Grand Terrace
Upper Concourse
St Pancras International Station
London
N1C 4QL

searcys.co.uk/venues/st-pancras-grand

Tags: Bars in N1, Best Bars London, Champagne Bar, london bars, Searcys champagne Bar, St Pancreas Bars

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Soho, always seems to be buzzing… its streets packed every night of the week with revellers, ravers and roustabouts. The endless bars, pubs, clubs and restaurants run the whole gamut of styles, cuisine and salubriousness. Some of them get crowded, some get wild, some get seedy. Some get all three. So, it’s always great to find a bar you can escape too, where, even if it’s crowded, it’s cool and classy.

That’s what you get at Refuel in the Soho Hotel. The whole joint is owned by Firmdale Hotels who seem to have found a winning recipe for their small chain of hotels… including our firm favourite Ham Yard in nearby St James’.

The hotel’s interior has been designed by co-founder Kit Kemp in classically cool British style. Fittingly, given the area’s history, the hotel includes two film screening room and a film club. At weekends families can even enjoy a kid’s film with a buffet lunch to get everyone both fed and entertained. Elsewhere chic salons and public rooms are the perfect place for lounging around and enjoying afternoon tea.

But, enough of that, let’s get back to the bar. An early evening of bar investigations had taken in some hectic happy hour haunts. After which we were in search of something a little different with a touch more decorum. Thus we happened upon the Soho Hotel, hidden away in a quiet mews just metres away from the frenetic thoroughfares surrounding it. Here we were greeted exceptionally warmly and welcomed into the very stylish Refuel bar.

This is just the kind of place we like to while the hours away in. What can I say? It just feels right in every way. The staff were delightful, the drinks delicious, the decor delectable. The long, luxurious bar ensured that there were no unsightly scrums or queues. I sipped upon a Passion Bellini, my companion tucked into a Twisted Mojito. The hours slipped by as the drinks slipped down. Warm seasonal cocktails were taken to prepare ourselves for the cold, wet, winter night that awaited outside our warm haven of hospitality.

Any gripes? None at all. But a question… I get the name Refuel. It is a place to you can take in a few drinks in lovely surroundings, ready to head out into the big city. But Refuel sounds to me like you’re filling up with fuel. And nothing could be further from the truth. Here, in the heart of Soho, only the finest cocktails will keep you going.

THE SOHO HOTEL
4 Richmond Mews,
London,
W1D 3DH

www.firmdalehotels.com/hotels/london/the-soho-hotel/

Tags: bars in soho, hotel bars, refuel bar, soho hotel

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They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But they didn’t take into account the poor souls who haven’t managed to drag themselves up in time for it. And that’s quite a lot of us come the weekend.

So, step forward brunch, the most important meal of the weekend. And possibly the whole week. One that combines the very best comforting food with the opportunity to drink restorative libations.

Which is why we found ourselves late on a Sunday morning at Powder Keg Diplomacy, a well loved local bar and restaurant on St Johns Hill near Clapham Junction. Here they have concocted the perfect recipe for a popular local hangout… warm, welcoming and stylish with just the right dash of Victorian colonial eccentricity. We turned up with kids in tow and were all welcomed in by the fun and friendly staff who were dealing with Sunday in a much more positive frame of mind than we were.

The bar is split into three areas, there’s a comfortable lounging around area at the front, a well stocked bar with booths lining the wall opposite, and then beyond the bar towards the back, a Victorian style conservatory area dotted with period tables and chairs. Seated in a comfortable booth we could see local denizens of all ages arrive for a combination of coffees, cocktails, beers, brunches and lunches.

Crispy bacon rolls wee ordered and devoured quickly. The ever-helpful staff. much to the kids delight, were also able to provide a couple of enormous Yorkshire puddings for them. Whilst they gorged themselves we spent our time perusing the many variations on a Bloody Mary that were on offer. If Bloody Mary’s are not to your taste then a wide selection of restorative cocktails were also on offer. The Espresso Martini, made with rum, coffee liqueur and fresh espresso was irresistibly tempting and suitable stimulating.

Brunch turned to lunch, during which large amount of roast beef disappeared, quickly washed down with craft beer. If the younger members of the party hadn’t needed exercising we may have even stayed longer… perhaps for my new invention which merges lunch with tea and which I have christened ‘Lafternoon’.

We left fully restored with firm intentions to return, not just for brunch, but to enjoy an evening of food, cocktails and colonial extravagance.

The Powder Keg Diplomacy is at 
147 St Johns Hill
SW11 1TQ

www.powderkegdiplomacy.co.uk

Tags: bar reviews, bars in Clapham, bars in st Johns hill, bars in SW11, Bars London, Best Bars London

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