Bar

A couple of weeks ago, we brought you news that the team behind Miracle were launching a new Halloween bar and noted that it was in a much bigger location than the usual Christmas pop-ups. We thought that it might also be the new location for Miracle this year, and that's exactly what's happened. 

If you're unaware of what was previously called Miracle at Henrietta, here's the TL;DR. It's a pop-up bar featuring more Christmas decorations than you've

It's all change at Spring Street Pizza down in Borough, where some pretty exciting plans are underway. The pizzeria by chef Tom Kemble, who won a Michelin star for his previous restaurant at Bonham's, has already carved out a name for its pizzas. And that's not easy in a market as feverish as London's pizza scene. Now Spring Street is planning a massive expansion into the space next door, where Kemble is opening an Italian American bar.

The move into the next-door arch will create a space that will have room for 200 people, serving up a mix of cocktails and bar food. They're

We already knew that both Clare Smyth and Daniel Boulud were opening at the big new Waldorf Astoria at Admiralty Arch, but now we also know who will be joining them. It's the latest bar opening from the Inception Group, also behind Mr Fogg's, Cahoots, Control Room B in Battersea and more. 

Called The Admiral's Mess, it's going to be a standalone bar for them (similar to the Control Room B approach inside Battersea Power Station), although it will be one

Back in the 1920s, it was built as a branch of Woolworths. Now, a hundred years later, instead of an American retail giant, we've got a Canadian brand taking over the space on Kensington High Street. LaCage is a Montreal institution that's the place to watch hockey games. Here in London, it's taking a broader approach to the types of sports shown, but the food is going to be broadly the same.

The London branch (their first outside Canada) is a massive space, set across two floors and with space designed to show a whole range of sporting fixtures whether you're into footie, rugby,

It's currently in the top 10 of the UK's Top 50 Cocktail Bars (it last topped the list in 2024), and has previously reached no. 59 on the World's 50 Best bars list. Now one of Manchester's best bars is doing an Andy Burnham - it's coming to London. 

The Manchester bar is run by brothers Joe and Daniel Schofield, who have both worked in London bars before, at Coupette and The American Bar at The Savoy. They've won a slew of awards since opening their bar, which they say is a "tribute to the cocktail heyday of the 1930s".

The London bar is taking over the

Just over a year since he closed his best-known (but also most contentious) venue, the faux worker's cafe Norman's in Tufnell Park, Elliot Kaye is back in the game again with Marrion's. He's taken on the space on Morning Lane that's been home to a series of interesting openings over the years (remember FIX and Bar Kino?) and more recently Nest, then the shorter-lived Big Night.

It's being described as a neighbourhood bar, "nothing too pretentious". To that end, the cocktail list will be a classic one with a rotating house martini and a wine list with bottles from popular importers

Mayfair is firmly getting its mojo back and the arrival of cool new cocktail bar Brutes is a great example of that. 

After years of it seeming that the only places that could afford to open in Mayfair were huge, soulless international group restaurants, we're very pro the arrival of a new vanguard. Kickstarted by Martin Kuczmarski at The Dover, then followed by the likes of Lilibet's and, most recently, Brutes, this new Mayfair movement is much more about a stylish kind of hospitality.

Into the fray more recently has come Bar Finch, which opened slightly on the QT two months ago in the heart of Mayfair's art quarter, Cork Street, but has only just started telling people about itself. The man

Back in May, one of London's best bars, Tayēr + Elementary, was forced to close because of a fire. The bar will reopen once the fire damage is repaired, but that's not stopping owners Alex Kratena and Monica Berg. Instead, they'll be heading into Covent Garden, taking over the basement of a relatively new bar, Cato, for six weeks. 

The bar pop-up is called Casual by Tayēr, and they're planning a series of cocktails that they say "merge the distinctive style of Tayēr with the technique and precision of Elementary". Exactly what the drinks list will be is yet to be

For years we’ve kept Londoners apprised of the hottest restaurants to have on their radar. Now we’re doing the same for the city’s bars. Every season, we’ll update this list with the hot new bars you should know about. 

17/6/26 - updated with more details and an opening date

Earlier this year, The Crusting Pipe, a mainstay of Covent Garden for over 45 years, closed. It was sad to see it go but, in fairness, the last time we were in the area, it was almost empty. 

And now its replacement, Mr Fogg's Market Tavern, is nearly upon us. Mr Fogg's is a group that has taken over quite a few difficult sites and made a success of them, so perhaps they're the ones who can bring

Three incredibly experienced bar professionals have set out on their own, opening Without Papers, a Shoreditch bar serving up excellent Italo/British cocktails. We pulled up a stool at the bar.

They already have orange, yellow, scarlet, blue and violet Little Doors around town and now a Little Neon Door is getting ready to open in Shoreditch. 

Taking over what was once Floripa cocktail bar, this is going to follow the template of the other, very successful, Little Doors in the growing franchise. So it's essentially themed after a house party, and you could have cocktails in the Sitting Room, a party in the Living Room and Kitchen, karaoke in the shower and loot the fancy dress cupboard in the Dressing Room (which also has karaoke).

Alongside the cocktails,

The Doghouse Distillery is in Battersea but now they're also opening a brand new bar, just a mile away, that's just off Clapham Common. They actually popped up there for a short while back in December, but since the beginning of the year, they've been changing the space into a proper permanent bar for the local distillery. 

The main distillery itself mainly focuses on gin, vodka and "moonshine", the latter of which is their version of an American-style whisky. And that's going to be used in what they're claiming is "London’s largest Old Fashioned menu", which will also include Old

We went to expand our wine tastes with the eclectic Eastern European-focused list at new Notting Hill wine bar Sova.