The most-loved bars and pubs in London

Picture the scene: it’s late July, you’ve spent all week working in your sweatbox of a flat, you’re looking for somewhere breezy to cool off at the weekend. The place to go? The Spurstowe. Not only does it have an expansive beer garden (which is great for people-watching), it’s extremely close to London Fields. Hello, ice-cream vans. Food is always a strong point too, with the Dough Hands pizza lot slinging out their celebrated slices from the kitchen at present. Predictably, a favourite haunt of Hackney’s most put-together young creatives (it makes frequent appearances on zeitgeisty local meme account Socks House Meeting) and it no longer takes bookings, so get down early doors on the weekend if you don’t want someone treading on your Margiela Tabis as you try and elbow your way through the crowds to find a table. 

Drinkers and diners are both happy at this brick and timber 1930s boozer. The former get a sterling selection of cask and craft ales, plus cocktails and an acceptable wine list. The latter get a menu that changes regularly, depending on the pop-up kitchen, plus hefty Sunday roasts. There’s plenty of seating: at large wooden tables next to the central bar, in the back garden and in the front yard facing Nunhead Green. You'll also find an array of entertainment here, including DJs, folk nights and a comedy club. And the name? A nunnery once occuped this site; the rebellious Mother Superior was murdered during the Reformation and her head stuck on a pikestaff on the green.

The UK is experiencing a much-publicised Guinness shortage at the moment – it’s no wonder, now that one in every ten pints poured in the capital is the black stuff – which makes the opening of this swanky new spot in Covent Garden all the more exciting. After years of teasing and two pushed-back opening dates, the Guinness microbrewery in Old Brewer’s Yard is finally set to open in 2025 following a £73 million building project. Located on a historic site that first produced beer over 300 years ago, the 50,000-square-foot building will feature plenty of event spaces, an open-fire kitchen and restaurant featuring a rooftop with 360-degree views, a merch shop and, most important of all, a micro-brewery pumping out limited-edition brews alongside gallons of the freshest Guinness in the city. The exact opening date is yet to be announced, but the city’s Guinness lovers should be able to split the G in its hallowed halls in a matter of months. 

Some pubs are a work of art, but Mayfair’s Audley Public House takes the idea to the next level. Iwan and Manuela Wirth, founders of the renowned Hauser and Wirth galleries, re-launched this impressive Victorian gin palace in 2022. And ‘impressive’ really is the word: here you’ll find a trippy ceiling mosaic from artist Phyllida Barlow and, in the Mount St. Restaurant upstairs, actual Andy Warhol and Lucien Freud paintings on the wall. It’s pretty intoxicating to neck humble pints in such proximity to artistic greatness, though naturally the pub’s food and drinks offering is pretty swish too. With poshed-up favourites (think pies and fish and chips) in the kitchen and beers from Battersea’s Sambrook’s Brewery behind the bar, it’s a feast for the eyes and tastebuds. Order this The Audley’s Scotch egg, perfectly gooey and served in two halves, sunny side up, should be on permanent display at the Tate. Time Out tip The Mount St Restaurant boasts four private dining rooms, including The Scottish Room, a Highlands-inspired creation that features a striking cluster of antlers affixed to the ceiling. Great Scott! RECOMMENDED: The best restaurants in Mayfair.

It might look like a classic London pub from the outside, all Britain in Bloom-worthy hanging baskets and an extremely pub-like name picked out in gold lettering, but the Camberwell Arms is not a place to watch the footie or sink eight pints and waddle home semi-conscious (maybe try the Hermits Cave across the road for such tomfoolery). Locals have known this for the past decade, ever since the grand Victorian boozer was given a serious sprucing up in 2014 under the auspices of chef director Mike Davies. Mike had form; starting out at one of south London’s original gastropubs, the Anchor & Hope in Waterloo, before setting up another south London institution, the much-loved hipster HQ that is Frank’s rooftop bar in Peckham.  ‘Sublime’ doesn’t even begin to do it justice. It is nothing less than art Since then, the Camberwell Arms has remained the very picture of modesty. Settle into the spacious back room, an airy but still-intimate space, and the lack of fanfare (stripped wooden floorboards and the occasional stylish print is about as close to grandiose design as it gets here) only goes to prove how confident they are in the quality of the food. Who needs jazzed-up interiors when the cooking is this compelling?  The menu is short but not too short, seasonal without being smug, and features a wry nod to the room’s pub past; a starter of beer onions on toast with aged gruyère. It’s a frankly indecent snack, snaked with sloppy boozed-up ribbons of onions, the particularly...

A former school for girls is now offering an education in beer. The chapel-shaped, Victorian building is a bit of an anomaly on Tottenham’s High Road, in among the corner shops and with a glimmer of Spurs’ shiny new HQ in the distance. Up until recently, it was The Pride of Tottenham, a rowdy match-day pub that shut up shop following noise complaints. Transforming the empty and unloved building into what they’re hoping will be an all-round more neighbour-friendly hangout is the Night Tales team, as well as Tom Gibson, the man behind Dalston cocktail bar Ruby’s. Although the sight of a bouncer on the door midweek felt intimidating, inside, it was welcoming. The pub should suit the seasons – one side is light-filled and modern, while a partition separates off a dark, distressed room with a mahogany bar and vintage signs bearing old-fashioned crests. But the most important season of all is the footie kind – blinds had come down for better TV viewing when we visited. If football is this pub’s first love, beer would have to be its second. A long blackboard advertises 20 ‘house’, ‘craft’ and ‘cask’ beers. Local breweries Redemption, Pressure Drop and Beavertown are represented, but you’ll also spy Walthamstow and Bermondsey beers, plus Guinness and Heineken – there’s a refreshing absence of craft beer snobbery that seems to have struck a chord with locals already. Burgers from top patty peddlers Lucky Chip also hit the mark, enjoyed in a picnic-bench-filled beer garden...

Do you like music? You’ll love the Beatles. Enjoy movies? Check out a little gem known as ‘The Godfather’. Fan of the dramatic arts? Do yourself a favour, mate: Shakespeare. Thank me later. Am I about to compare Noble Rot to Shakespeare? No! Kind of. It’s more that if you’re a fan of really nice food and wine you should definitely go to Noble Rot. It is a no-brainer. Anything I write after this point is garnish. When, one lunchtime, I walked into the Bloomsbury restaurant and wine bar, a blissful calm set over me, similar to how the barefoot pilgrim Louis IV must have felt on arriving at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres. Some divine harmony, running through the mellow decor, extending into the staff and finally through the menu and wine list. Everything is on point. Everything is nice. The bread is a Rush-esque power trio of carbohydrates: soda, focaccia, and sourdough selflessly working together to achieve a common goal. The slipsole - a kind of buttery, beautiful ellipse - may well be the restaurant’s special move. This fish is a soft and smokey wonder that refuses to not be eaten. Similarly charismatic were the comte beignets. Dusted in parmesan and served with pickled walnut ketchup (a more well-read and worldly Daddies Sauce), these bad boys made me flout my own ‘no more oily crispy things filled with hot goo’ rule. Crucially everything tasted of something. This shouldn’t be a remarkable quality in a restaurant, but how often have you paid through the nose for...

A relic of a pub, the Palm Tree has no time at all for the modern trappings most east London hostelries. But people still traipse to this middle-of-nowhere Mile End venue for something money can’t buy – the Palm Tree provides a Cockney experience more intense than Danny Dyer pulling pints at the Queen Vic. Signed pictures of obsolete celebrities and forgotten jockeys line the walls above the oval-shaped bar, and spaces that aren’t plastered with memorabilia are covered in gold chintz accented by cabaret-esque red lighting. Regulars can be real characters, but it’s refreshing to visit somewhere with a distinct lack of hipsters. Its canalside position is appealing to summer strollers, but it’s the evening vibe that’s the real draw. There’s often a live jazz band, and since there are no neighbours within shouting distance, late-night knees-ups often get lairy.

Bar Termini does two things: coffee and cocktails. Coffee is overseen by Marco Arrigo, head of quality for Illy, who has probably trained more baristas – and trained them rigorously – than anyone else in the UK. Cocktails are supervised by Tony Conigliaro, the alco-alchemist behind 69 Colebrooke Row and Zetter Town House, among others. Teams don’t get much dreamier than this. So, have they found a supersized venue to match the giant reputation? Ha ha ha. There’s room for 25, and seated service only, though you may stand if you order a single ‘espresso al bar’ for Italian-style drinking-and-running. The coffee list has just four brews, all of them classics but with a twist. The alcohol list has three negronis, four ‘aperitivi’, three wines, one bottled beer. There is also a small food offering: baked goods from L’Anima in Shoreditch by day, charcuterie and cheese in the evening. I went for coffee at lunchtime. The ‘espresso al tavola’ (they’ll explain what it means) was unusual but flawless. On my second visit later the same day, I had a marsala martini: Beefeater gin, sweet marsala, dry vermouth, almond bitters served straight-up. A model of simplicity and balance, this is one of the best cocktails in London. The tiny Bar Termini is likely to become a hot ticket; booking is advised but walk-ins are welcomed. The dream team has dreamt up a vision of a bar. 

Fancy a Swift one? The answer will always be ‘yes’ once you get to know this swish, two-level cocktail bar on Soho’s buzzy Old Compton Street, not exactly an area short on somewhere to grab a drink. Part of what makes this place so special, though, is that it’s essentially two joints in one. The ground-level is more chill, offering the likes of aperitivos and wines, while the bar below offers the chance to channel your inner Don Draper with whiskies and headier mixes. Swift Soho was founded by Bobby Hiddleston and Mia Johansson, who met when they were shaking it at the sadly shuttered cocktail institution Milk & Honey, so it’s no wonder the service and mixology is so top-notch they’ve also opened branches in Borough and Shoreditch. For a bit of old-school Soho glamour with regular jazz and ragtime sessions, though, you know where to go. Order this While the Borough and Shoreditch gaffs offer (slightly) more comprehensive food menus, the Soho original sticks to bar snacks such as olives and chilli rice crackers. It’s garlanded with awards for the drinks, after all, and the downstairs menu is teeming with mouth-watering options such as the fruity Fourth Wall. Time Out tip A mini bar-crawl in one, Swift is great for dates: start off in the relaxed top bar and head to the cloistered downstairs if you’re left wanting more. RECOMMENDED: The best cocktail bars in London.