London's best bars with a view

Sure, the powder blue velvet seating will take your eye at first, but soon it'll drift over to the windows and the South Bank promenade and the Thames beyond, including the perky dome of St Paul's Cathedral. Set on the ground floor of the Sea Containers hotel, this perpetually award winning cocktail bar isn't just for booze snobs, even the regular drinker can enjoy its cosy charm.

Crate is a pizzeria and brewery on the banks of the Lea Navigation in Hackney Wick. Enjoy your craft beer – brewed on site – as you pitch up on benches outside and watch as ducklings, smug folk on boats and the occasional bit of urban flotsam and jetsam floats past. In high summer, there's no place better.

Its car-park setting is a hipster paradise, its no-nonsense cocktails hit the spot when the sun is hot, but it’s the views of London that get people most excited about this cool, summer-only hangout – that and the fact they’ve finally made it past the punishing queue. Quick and easy-to-make cocktails such as Aperol spritz are best, because the bar gets overwhelmed at peak times. No matter: the full sweep of London looks gorgeous from this perspective – see Instagram for smug selfie spoilers from devotees.

If you’re wondering what the Thames docks might have felt like before their Disneyfication into Docklands, these narrow, ivy-covered and etched-glass premises aren’t a bad place to start. The downstairs room of this riverside pub, which dates from 1720, is all wood panels and nautical tat, and you can step out of the main bar room on to the tiny deck at high tide and look upon the mighty River Thames and feel all tiny and small. In September 2011 the Grapes was bought by actor Sir Ian McKellen, and you'll often find him propping up the bar.

A hefty 1930s green and yellow Dutch barge moored between Lambeth and Vauxhall bridge, Tamesis Dock is kind of a like a floating(ish) student union, with a rough and ready energy, but fabulous views of the Houses of Parliament, London Eye and Battersea Power Station. Aye aye, captain. 

Forza Wine, the Peckham rooftop wine bar, can now also be found on the top floor of the National Theatre, with a wonderful wraparound terrace, perfect for sunny drinking of their impressive cocktail and natty wine menu. Our faves include the grape daiquiri, which tastes like sour Haribo in the most grown-up way possible, and a fiery chilli rum lucifer. Natural wine also abounds, and don't forget to order a Custardo - a coffee/cocktail/pudding hybrid that is possibly the most delicious thing you will ever taste. Oh and the food is pretty excellent too. 

Ah, the transformative power of the River Thames. Were it a couple of miles inland, the Cutty Sark would be a charming but otherwise unremarkable pub, but add the mighty Thames and it becomes three floors of bow-fronted Georgian magic, with the top-level room in particular giving fantastic river views both up- and downstream. Secure a window seat, or a table on the cobbled street outside, and imagine yourself in one of the nicer scenes from ‘Our Mutual Friend’.

Get all of London, all at once at the top of the Walkie Talkie. Don’t expect to just waltz in, however – you’ve either got to book online, or attempt entry during one of the blink-and-you’ll-miss-them walk-in periods. Signature cocktails cost £16 plus service, or order a booze-free one for a little less. 

A floating cocktail bar that gently bobs away on the Islington stretch of the Regent’s Canal, Bruno’s is moored next to the equally barge-based restaurant Caravel. It's a treat; a hidden London bar that at no point makes you feel like you’re an unwilling participant in an immersive theatre production. Bruno’s also isn’t your mate’s Hackney Wick houseboat; there’s no dusty log burner, no overriding smell of roll-ups or bucket of warm Red Stripes. Instead, cocktails are playful without being silly, tasing like cherry Coke or Kinder Bueno. Don't miss the Starliner Martini, a turbo Espresso Martini with tequila and chocolate liqueur.

Every summer, this rooftop co-working-hub-slash-café in Hackney’s Netil House puts on a series of events, from alfresco cinema screenings and quirky gigs, to hot-tub nights and yoga sessions, all accompanied by street food snacks from hip pop-ups and cocktails from the bar. Up here, you get that big-sky feeling so rare in our crowded capital: the almost 360-degree view takes in London Fields, Hackney Downs and Victoria Park, parts of Regent’s Canal, and the far-off skyscrapers of the City.

The National Theatre's riverside craft beer bar is one hell of a summer spot. Sink snacks from a rotating selection of highly decent street food traders while you sip on pints from the Gipsy Hill Brewing Company. Bonus: you don't even have to watch a play to visit.

Look out on London from inside one of its most iconic buildings. Searcys' Iris bar is on the 40th floor of 30 St Mary Axe, aka The Gherkin. Up here, enjoy bloomin’ big G&Ts or glasses of sparkling wine while feeling fairly smug about life.