en
Top 10 secrets bars in London
11 March 2023
travel
matthieu
1. Evans and Peel Detective Agency
This secret pub, indistinguishable from the outside, assumes the aspect of a private detective office. To enter, you should book an appointment. Then, you should invent a serious case to present to the secretary, who welcomes you, and an investigation that the detective could solve. Once you pass these formalities, the secretary opens a secret door and directs you to the detective. Passage brings you in fact to the entrance of the hidden bar. Room with bare walls, decor on the 30s, soft lighting, and cocktail menu in the form of the minutes typed on a typewriter. A real leap back in time!
Adress : 310c Earls Ct Rd, London
Opening hours : Tuesday – Thursday : 5pm – Midnight
Friday – Saturday : 5pm – 12:30am
Sunday – Monday : closed
2. TThe Mayor of Scaredy Cat Town
First step: find the Breakfast Club on the Artillery Lane. This true English institution offers you incredible brunches.
Once arriving there, ask at the bar to see “The Mayor” and find the secret hidden entrance behind the door of a huge fridge. The staff will then open the door that will lead you to one of the best Hidden Cocktails bars in London.
Adress : 12-16 Artillery Lane, London
Opening hours : Monday – Tuesday : 5pm – Midnight
Wednesday : 3pm – 11pm
Thursday – Friday : 3pm – 11:30pm
Saturday : 12noon – 11:30pm
Sunday : 12noon – 10pm
3. Callooh Callay
Ranked 27th best bars Cocktail of the world by the British magazine “Drinks International”, the Callooh Callay offers amazing fruit cocktails from the imagination of the London’s best bartenders or old forgotten recipes of all the time.
Besides product quality and originality of its menu, the London Bar offers a unique experience to its customers. The bar, visible from the outside, has a secret entrance to a second secret bar. The entrance, hidden in a cupboard, requires delving into the wardrobe to find the door. This second bar (see photo), is inspired by the psychedelic world of Lewis Carroll, with colourful furnishings, and giant cups recalling the hour of tea for Alice in Wonderland.
If you are a member of the club Callooh Callay, you can even access the backdoor in which is hidden the third secret site bar. This third pub, called the JubJub bar, offers a simple decor and a cocktail menu that changes every six weeks. The JuJub Bar is hidden in the second bar. So what makes Callooh Callay a bar 3 in 1: a bar, in a bar, into a bar …
Adress : 65 Rivington St, London
Opening hours : Monday – Wednesday : 6pm – midnight
Thursday – Sunday : 6pm – 01am
4. Cahoots
Cahoots is the newest secret bar of London. Hidden in a remodelled subway train on the theme of the 40s and the prohibition, this bar offers to guests a real trip in time enhanced by a unique cocktail menu. The experience begins in the dressing rooms where a controller welcomes you to take your belongings. This is followed by the discovery of places, swarming details which recall the years of Prohibition and the beginning of the Second World War. Everything is designed to give customers the feeling of being in an era of a subway train, to the staff uniforms, typical of the 40s.
Warning: Due to a small accommodation capacity of the place, it is often full, so it would be necessary to book in advance.
Adress : 7 Kingly Street, London
Opening hours : Monday – Wednesday : 5pm – 1am
Thursday – Friday : 4pm – 2am
Saturday : 2pm – 3am
Sunday : 3pm – Midnight
5. Discount Suit Company
Although the name is displayed in luminous letters on the wall, it is difficult for a passer-by to guess that it is a pub, and it’s even more complicated to find the entrance. This last one, located in the former warehouse of a tailoring shop, seems impossible to be found.
To access the bar, it is therefore necessary to go down a narrow stairway leading on a thick black curtain, just hiding the secret room. Vintage frame, manuscript menus, staff uniforms adapted to the decor, welcome to a speakeasy worthy of the name!
Adress : 29A Wentworth St, London E1 7TB
Opening hours : Monday – Thursday : 5pm – Midnight
Friday – Saturday : 2pm – 1am
Sunday : closed
6. The bar with no name
At 69 Colebrooke Row, there is a pub without naming and sign. This is not really a hidden bar on the visual sense, but it remains impossible to be found to an outsider, unless you go outside the building by pure chance. Complicated nonetheless, as it takes for it to settle in small residential streets of Islington to find the windows of the bar without plate. From the outside, it looks empty and closed. But simply push the doors to enter into the atmosphere of the 30s of the pub often full in capacity.
Indeed, now the place has become quite famous because of the reputation of his boss, Tony Conigliaro, a reference for the world of cocktails. The place is pretty small, simple, and the menu presents classical tonalities and complex at the same time. The team of bartenders (or mixologists) has been carefully selected for their expertise, and the bartenders bring each a personal touch to prepare your drinks. A must-see-place, therefore, for all lovers of cocktails while are visiting London.
Adress : 69 Colebrooke Row, London N1 8AA
Opening hours : Sunday – Wednesday : 5pm – Midnight
Thursday : 5pm – 1am
Friday – Saturday : 5pm – 2am
7. Barts
Located “somewhere on Sloane Avenue,” the entry of Barts is absolutely impossible to be found for the non experts. To find it, you should ask at the reception of the Chelsea Cloisters Hotel who lead you to the toilet. There can be found a discreet door covered with wallpaper depicting a cartoon and hiding the access to the famous hidden bar. Press the doorbell, and a porter will open you … or not if he does not like the look too strict that you are wearing. So you should look after your outfit to hope for access!
Once inside the tiny room, you are immediately immersed in the typical crazy and chaotic atmosphere of the establishment. jazzy atmosphere in relation to the era of prohibition, all the details are studied with care. Decorations as far as the drinks list.
Adress : Somewhere on Sloane avenue, London
Opening hours : Sunday – Wednesday: 6pm – Midnight
Thursday – Saturday : 6pm – 1am
8. Coach and Horses
The Coach and Horses is ordinary London pub that hides an unusual singularity: the first secret tearoom, Soho’s Secret Tea Room! The presence of this tea room is impossible to guess for a casual customer. And for those who have been taken into confidence, the rest entry just as hard to find! A clue? It is sufficient to head behind the Coach and Horses bar – casually. Take the small corridor found there and go downstairs which is made of woods and is on the left…
Adress : Upstairs at the Coach & Horses 29 Greek Street London W1D 5DH
Horaires : From Monday to Sunday : 12noon – 6pm
9. The Cellar Door
These former public toilets home to one of the most famous cabaret bars in London: The Cellar Door. A festive and red hot atmosphere, with lighting in blue and purple neon lights, the bar provides many events and music concerts throughout the year.
Although it is no longer a secret from a long time, it’s always a nice experience to live in London.
Adress : Aldwych, London, WC2E 7DN
Opening hours : Monday – Saturday : 4pm – 1am
Sunday : 6pm – Midnight
10. The Drawing Room
The British Film Institute has two bars / restaurants well known to the general public, the Benugo bar & kitchen and The Riverfront, offering both interesting cocktails.
However, to find the hidden pub, you should know the precise location, and push one of the doorsof the Bar Benugo’s library. Behind that which is found to be the right secret door, there is The Drawing Room. A Speakeasy in Vintage and Scandinavian decoration, for pubs lovers of the 30s, with real books available to customers.
Adress : BFI, Belvedere Rd, London
Opening hours : Monday – Saturday : 10am – 11pm
Sunday : 10am – 10:30pm
If you are going to visit London in the near future we can therefore strongly advise you to go through one of those hidden bars, who perfectly represent the offset side of the capital. However, secret forces, seeking information on these facilities was particularly challenging, we could not know if they had a WiFi connection.
So if you are unsure and in order not to deal with unpleasant surprises, take with you a Pocketwifi 😉
