The Nudge's Guide to Unusual London Bars

Some of the most unusual London bars are unique and quirky pop ups, which – assuming that they’re good (and they often are) – are regularly featured in the Nudge’s tri-weekly emails.

But we’ve attempted here, with the exception of one bar, to feature permanently unusual London bars (that is, bars that are both permanent and unusual).

Enough said, these are they:

The American Bar at The Stafford It's an old world, old money boys’ club of a bar that feels more “clubhouse” than cocktail bar: it feels odd to sit there having not just completed 18 holes. Badly.

Rooftop Tipi A very unusual London bar, and our only "pop up" entry. High in the clouds, a heated rooftop tipi serving grilled buffalo steak....and mulled wine

Happiness Forgets Let happiness remember, at a secret underground cocktail bar in Shoreditch.

LTD / Hip Hop Karaoke As a cocktail connoisseur and - unbeknownst to your friends and yourself - the dopest of rappers, this is one’s for you.

Mayor of Scaredy Cat Town Your knowledge of London’s underground, speakeasy-style cocktail bars is making you more popular than ever.  Which is saying something, as everyone loves you anyway.

Piano Kensington New York does piano bars: friends squeezed around a grand piano in Greenwich Village, cocktail in hand, filling the room with Ratpack classics and showtunes. London has one too.

Barts A quirky, secret prohibition-style speakeasy in the heart of Chelsea

The Shop In the real world there are very few places where you can have whatever you like the look of, but The Shop NW10 is one of them

Absinthe Bar, Brompton Bar “Absinthe makes you crazy and criminal, provokes epilepsy and tuberculosis, and has killed thousands of French people. It makes a ferocious beast of man, a martyr of woman, and a degenerate of the infant”.

Unusual London bars not your thing? Prefer cocktails, eh? Check out the Nudge’s guide to London cocktail bars