The best happy hours in London

£6 for a cocktail and a plate of cicchetti. Wed-Sat, 5pm-7pm.

This basement bar is so dripping in disco, paying it a visit should instantly have you buzzing – but Supermax’s happy hour makes a trip here all the more groovy. For two and a half hours, a list of six banging Negroni-inspired cocktails will set you back £6 a pop – including a rhubarb and pink pepper-spiked Negroni Sbagliato – and each one comes with a plate of Italian tapas. Enjoy them all under the retro glow of a glitter ball and to an unbeatable soundtrack. This has got to be the capital’s coolest happy hour.

Two highballs for £12 cocktails, £5 for sake of the week. Wed-Thu 5pm-7pm

As far as happy hours go, this one is a pretty sophisticated one. Head to the UK’s first craft sake brewery, Kanpai, on Wednesdays and Thursdays to enjoy the delights in its taproom at a knockdown rate. That includes the premium sake of the day for a fiver. You can also try cocktails made from the Japanese rice wine and filled with flavours from the country to get those tastebuds dancing at the start of the weekend.

Two-for-one on bestselling drinks. Daily, 5-7pm.

This substantial Balham hangout space hosts entertainments galore, from quiz nights to life drawing to yoga with dogs. But if you want to stay on more familiar ground, then turn up for their popular happy hours, which offer two-for-one deals on their bestselling tipples.

£6 cocktails. Daily, 5pm–7pm (Carnaby St); midday-7pm (Brixton).

Given the venue’s name, no prizes for guessing that its happy hour is a rum do. Waiters whizz past the corrugated metal panelling and carefully distressed driftwood of this duo of Caribbean-themed bar/restaurants ferrying £6 offerings from their all-rum cocktail menu that include a citrussy, blue-coloured take on rum and Ting (Wray & Nephew rum, lime, blue curacao, Ting), a tall, fruity punch, a Jamaican Mule and a Mojito. We’re assuming you like your measures hefty, your flavours strong and your prices cheap. But who doesn’t, eh?

Cocktails two for £12. Tue-Sat, 4-8pm.

Make for this gorgeously seedy circus-themed Shoreditch bar for a generous four hour stint of discount drinks. It's the perfect opportunity to fuel up before a hectic night of dancing to a strong line-up of house, disco and funk DJs, spread across three floors. 

£10 for two cocktails. Daily, 4-7pm.

Make happy hour aperitivo time at The Drunken Oyster, a flashy Italian-American-themed watering hole above Jason Atherton pizza joint Hai Cenato. There are six cocktails on offer during the bar’s happy hour, when they’ll set you back just a fiver. While you can order a couple of souped-up G&Ts, it’s the Italian-leaning drinks you should explore – from a Bicycle to an Americano. Bellisima.

Two-for-one on cocktails. £12 for four beers. Wed-Fri, 5-9pm; Sat 5-7pm.

Get on your Cuban heels for a night in the depths of Marylebone. This basement rum den is dressed up like something out of Colonial Cuba, with tropical palms shooting out from dark corners and Latino rhythms filling the air. To help get into the groove, happy hour kicks off at clocking-off time and includes classic cocktails with a healthy kick of – you guessed it – rum. If rum really isn’t your thing, other drink deals on beer and wine encourage some serious sharing, so bring a gang and get happy.

£3.50 for selected pints of beer. £3.50 for house spirit and mixer. For members (but membership is free). Daily, until 8.30pm.

A central London bar that’s not rammed with Stella-swigging suits? It does exist, and it’s an intimate, arty retreat (wood panelling, kooky art and foreign cinema posters) that pulls off retro cool without being pretentious. Chilled though it is, The Social is a small venue and things get a little busier after office hours, so arrive early or book ahead if you want a booth to lounge in. What can you enjoy during happy hour? Currently, the deal includes pints of Camden Pale and house spirits with mixers until 8.30pm for members – and don’t worry, membership is free, you just need to send an email in advance. We’re loath to let you in on this covert, boozy secret, frankly.

Two-for-one cocktails. Sun-Fri, 4pm–7pm (Goodge St, Liverpool St, Old St, Oxford Circus, Shoreditch); everyday (Clapham, Mansion House, Monument, Shaftesbury Avenue).   

Popular mixologists London Cocktail Club now boast nine bars across town, all of which ply punters with half-price booze six days a week. We like their dimly lit, tattoo-themed Shaftesbury Avenue dive the most, with its loud ’90s music and well-mixed booze. As the weekend approaches, expect it to get busier (and sweatier), until waiting at the bar feels not unlike squeezing onto a tube train at 8am. Except that this is a much better way to meet strangers.

£25 for two pizzas and two drinks, from selected beer, wine, cocktails and spirit and mixers, Sun-Wed 5-8pm. Two-for-one cocktails. Mon-Sun, 5pm–8pm.

Down a buzzy pedestrianised street in central Clapham, early evenings see Venn St Records dropping a little of its offbeat vibe and trying to plug into the generic after-work crowd with an excellent happy hour cocktail offer. From 5pm, a sparse, suited crew gather inside the dark, dingy, underground, neon-tinged room in pursuit of their expertly mixed, nicely varied cocktails. It’s all part of the bar’s ‘cheap date’ menu, and includes pizza as part of the deal. Check out sister bars Old St Records and Northcote Records for similar bargains.

Two-for-one cocktails. Mon-Fri, 3–6pm. Also available in Shoreditch and Soho.

It would be rude not to get down and dirty in the West End. Six days a week, this hot-dog and sticky rib-centric basement bar and restaurant offers 'high fives and good vibes' for those making a mad dash from their desk for delicious cocktails. The six cocktails are crowd-pleasers, with the Top Dog (vodka, prosecco, Chambord, strawberry, lemon) proving popular among those with sweeter palates, while the Mutt’s Nuts (bourbon, maple syrup, apple, lemon, bitters) is a winner for whiskey fans. We can confirm the bite of this happy hour is as good as its bark.

Two-for-one cocktails. Four bottles of Tiger beer for £12. Mon-Fri 5-8pm.

Normally the term ‘dive bar’ is an insult, but that’s basically the vibe that this late-opening Islington establishment is going for. The lighting levels are negligible, the jukebox will punch you if you contemplate anything other than classic rock, and in an eyebrow-raising nod to the heyday of the Sunset Strip, the rafters of the ceiling are covered in used bras. This being London, the only thing missing is dive bar prices, but during happy hour you can get two of the same cocktails for the price of one (they’re normally £8.50-£9.50 each). It’s a rugged, whisky-centric list: try a Lynchburg Lemonade (Tennessee whiskey with Cointreau, lemon juice, lemonade and bitters) for something crisp and refreshing, and a not too full-on way of rounding off the working day.

Two-for-one cocktails, house beer bottles, glasses of prosecco. Mon-Fri, 4-7pm. Sun, 5-9pm.

This is a crowd-pleasing kind of happy hour, set bang in the middle of central London and covering all the bases: cocktails, house beers, house wines and even house fizz in the form of prosecco fall under the daily two-for-one deal. Not only that, but you can spread yourself out in the basement bar's 'grand hall' behind a secret door or in the ‘vault’ even further underground. Although the cocktail list is a modern offering, the theme is vaguely Victorian. Time to party like it's 1889.

£2.50 bottles of beer, spirit and mixer. £3 glasses of wine. £10 for two cocktails. £12 bottles of wine (prosecco £18). Sun-Fri, 4–9pm.

Answers on a postcard if you have any idea how this retro bar hasn’t bankrupted itself with its bargain basement drinks offers. Retro ‘90s party bangers play while bar staff serve a young crowd wine, beer and spirits with mixer for £2.50 a time. Given that it doesn’t just last 60 minutes, but five whole hours (less ‘happy hour’, more ‘very happy afternoon’), it’s a wonder that the crowd aren’t all shouting abuse at each other while playing incredibly wobbly games of ‘Micro Machines’ on the resident Megadrive or loudly slurring along to ‘Return of the Mack’. But, amazingly, things are actually pretty civilised – particularly if you head down early in the week. Oh, and don’t worry if you don’t fancy the trip to King’s Cross – each of Simmons’ 13 other locations all offer the same deals.