Secret bars in London: a guide to the hidden rooms behind unmarked doors
a guide to the hidden rooms behind unmarked doors, and which ones are still there
Secret bars in London are rarely secret in any useful sense. They are licensed premises with websites and a booking page; what they withhold is a sign above the door. This guide lists the hidden bars in London worth the trouble of finding, gives the street and the nearest station for each, and says plainly where one has closed or stopped taking walk-ins.
How this guide to secret bars is organised
By door rather than by drink. Every room below is behind something that does not announce it: a jade door on a busy street, a pig-shaped knocker, a flight of steps off a square, a churchyard. What is in the glass changes every season and is somebody else's subject.
The hidden bars in London that last tend to be the ones that never explained themselves in the first place. A room with no sign has nothing to keep up: it either holds its reputation by word of mouth or it closes, and both outcomes are represented on this page.
One entry is closed and one takes private bookings only. Both stay on the list. A guide that quietly deletes a well-known name leaves the reader to discover the closure on the pavement, which is the one outcome worth avoiding.
Where to find the hidden bars in London
Four of the six are inside a fifteen-minute walk of each other in Soho and Mayfair, which makes them an evening rather than a project. The City entry sits on its own and the East London one is no longer open at all.
None of these rooms is large. Secret bars in London trade on being small, so a reservation is the difference between a table and a pavement, particularly from Thursday onward.
One practical note about hidden entrances. Almost every complaint about places like these comes down to walking past the door twice, so the entries below say what the door actually looks like rather than only where it is.
The bars
Opium
15-16 Gerrard Street W1D Nearest station: Leicester Square
Three bars behind a jade door in Chinatown, fitted out in a 1920s Shanghai manner. The entrance is a plain door on a busy street and gives away nothing, which is the point.
Basement Sate
8 Broadwick Street W1F Nearest station: Oxford Circus
A small low-lit room under Broadwick Street, known for putting dessert and cocktails on the same menu. Walk-ins are taken; a reservation is safer.
The Blind Pig
58 Poland Street W1F Nearest station: Oxford Circus
Above the Social Eating House, behind an unmarked door with a blindfolded-pig knocker. Antique mirrored ceiling, apothecary fittings, and a menu that changes theme.
The Luggage Room
Grosvenor Square W1K Nearest station: Bond Street
In what was the luggage store of a Mayfair hotel, reached down a short flight of steps from the square. Small, formal, and easy to miss from the pavement.
By Appointment Only limited access
Bishopsgate Churchyard EC2M Nearest station: Liverpool Street
In a Grade II listed Victorian Turkish bath house, below street level in a City churchyard. Now available for private hire only rather than as a walk-in bar.
Looking Glass Cocktail Club closed
49 Hackney Road E2 Nearest station: Shoreditch High Street
Closed after fourteen years on Hackney Road. Listed here because the name still circulates on older guides to the area.
Questions
Do these bars actually hide their entrances?
Some genuinely do. Opium is behind a jade door with no bar signage, and the Blind Pig is up a staircase behind an unmarked door. Others are simply below street level or set back from a square, which is enough to make them invisible to anyone not looking. None of them requires a password or a member's introduction.
Is a reservation needed?
For most of them, yes, from Thursday to Saturday. These are small rooms with a few dozen seats. Basement Sate takes walk-ins when it can, and the others fill up in the evening. Booking is done through each bar's own site.
Why list a bar that has closed?
Because the name outlives the business. Looking Glass Cocktail Club ran for fourteen years on Hackney Road and still appears on older lists of things to do in East London. Anyone arriving with that name in mind is better served by a line saying it has gone than by silence.
Are there age or dress requirements?
All are over-18 venues and some ask for photo identification regardless of apparent age. Dress codes are informal at the Soho rooms and noticeably less so in Mayfair. Each bar publishes its own terms, and they change.
Elsewhere on this site: the guide to London statues, London oddities and the seven noses of Soho.