Archer Street Cocktail Bar & Lounge - A London Cocktail Bar With A Difference

Retaining a peaceful sense that everything will turn out just fine – commonly recognised has being optimistic, or “having faith” - is a character trait that generally proves itself to be of most use to you on Monday mornings.

If you were opening a London cocktail bar, however, you’d need to harness more of that optimism and faith than ever before. 

On an hourly basis.

But even that large amount of optimism would be inadequate if the cocktail bar you were opening was – like the new Archer Street Cocktail Bar & Lounge – billed as “South Soho’s best-kept secret, taking on the sophisticated style of a members-only club but open to all those know in the know”.

And it would be more inadequate still if your bar featured all-singing, all-dancing waiters and bar staff that break into song unannounced at intermittent periods throughout each evening.  

A little like an episode of Glee.

But the optimism required to launch the Archer Street Cocktail Bar and Lounge has been justified: it works.

Having fought through the crowds at Piccadilly and sidled past The Windmill strip club you’ll enter what feels an oasis of calm: the upstairs bar, dotted with comfortable velvet sofas and button-back armchairs, features large French windows and white, distressed wood panelling that combine to give it a bit of a Miami beach club vibe.

The downstairs bar feels more “après ski” with reclaimed rafter board walls, stripy cushions, quirky mirrors, and a long bar covered in antiqued steel panels.

As the first exclusive Billecart-Salmon Champagne bar in London, the cocktail menu includes a signature Dawa (a Kenyan drink translated as “magic potion”) and the Champagne in Yorkshire (blending champagne, gin, rhubarb liquor and syrup).  

Miami, Chamonix and Glee: all together in one member’s-only club, that has no members.

Yep, it works.

Archer Street Cocktail Bar & Lounge - Open Mon-Thurs: 4pm-1am, and Fri-Sat: 2pm-1am.

Note: The Archer Street Bar has also brought the Italian aperitivo tradition to London, by offering complimentary pre-dinner bites between 6pm and 7.30pm.

Like cocktails? Peruse the Nudge's guide to the best London cocktail bars