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This Manchester cocktail bar is officially the best in Britain

The Top 50 Cocktail Bars in the UK have been revealed for 2024

Ed Cunningham
Written by
Ed Cunningham
News Editor, UK
Schofield's Bar, Manchester
Photograph: Sean Ware / @seanware
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We at Time Out have plenty of rankings of bars, pubs and general boozers. On the hunt for the country’s best pubs? We’ve got a guide for that. London’s finest bars? Got that, too. What we don’t have (yet, anyway), is a definitive ranking of the entire country’s best cocktail bars – which is why the annual Top 50 Cocktail Bars awards are so damn handy.

And this year’s full list of the Top 50 Cocktail Bars has just been revealed. Decided by a ‘voting academy’ that includes bartenders, drinks writers, industry figures and influencers across the UK, the 2024 list was announced at a ceremony last night (February 6).

This year’s winner was, drum roll please… Schofield’s Bar in Manchester. Knocking London bar Satan’s Whiskers off the top, this is actually the second esteemed award that Schofield’s has picked up in the past 12 months. Back in May it topped the Class Bar awards – so, safe to say Schofield’s is on a bit of a roll right now. 

Last year’s winner Satan’s Whiskers in London was pushed down to second, while Passing Fancies in Birmingham came third. There were also specialist awards: ‘best bar team’ went to Couch in Birmingham, ‘one to watch’ was won by Manchester’s Red Light and ‘sustainable bar of the year’ was awarded to Below Stairs in Leeds.

Here’s the full list of the Top 50 Cocktail Bars in the UK right now.

  1. Schofield’s Bar – Manchester
  2. Satan’s Whiskers –London
  3. Passing Fancies – Birmingham
  4. Couch – Birmingham
  5. Hey Palu – Edinburgh
  6. Blinker – Manchester
  7. Swift Soho – London
  8. Amaro Bar – London
  9. Panda and Sons – Edinburgh
  10. Tayēr + Elementary –London
  11. Kwãnt –London
  12. Speak in Code – Manchester
  13. Three Sheets –London
  14. 🔶🟥🔵 –London
  15. Murder Inc – London
  16. Tabula Rasa – Leeds
  17. Lab 22 – Cardiff
  18. Filthy XIII – Bristol
  19. Crossroads – London
  20. The Connaught Bar –London
  21. Project Halcyon – Manchester
  22. SOMA –London
  23. Eve Bar – London
  24. Side Hustle – London
  25. The Hideout – Bath
  26. Little Mercies – London
  27. Below Stairs – Leeds
  28. Silverleaf – London
  29. Bar Termini – London
  30. Seed Library – London
  31. Charlie Brown’s – Glasgow
  32. Bramble Bar & Lounge – Edinburgh
  33. Scarfes Bar – London
  34. Happiness Forgets – London
  35. The Absent Ear – Glasgow
  36. 69 Colebrooke Row – London
  37. Artesian – London
  38. Callooh Callay – London
  39. Fox and Chance – Birmingham
  40. The Milk Thistle – Bristol
  41. Nauticus – Edinburgh
  42. Public – Sheffield
  43. The Gate – Glasgow
  44. Nightjar – London
  45. Ojo Rojo – Bournemouth
  46. The Wildcat – Edinburgh
  47. Lyaness – London
  48. Pennyroyal – Cardiff
  49. Bench – Sheffield
  50. The American Bar – Auchterarder

You can check out the list in full on the official website here.

This ranking isn’t to be confused with the entirely-separate World’s 50 Best Bars list. You can find out more about that on Time Out here.

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