By Appointment Only

NOTE: By Appointment Only is now closed except for private hire – find out more HERE.

London, 1895.

Oscar Wilde’s latest play has just premiered at The Haymarket. Horses are confident that motorised taxis will never catch on. And The London School of Economics just held its first class in London.

All the while, a group of highly skilled labourers are unwittingly building what will eventually become one of London’s finest cocktail bars, hidden beneath the streets of Bishopsgate.

That cocktail bar is By Appointment Only, a subterranean drinking den set inside a stunning Victorian Bath House, which is – no exaggeration – one of the most beautiful venues in this city. The street-level entrance is a small, oddly incongruous Turkish-style booth nestled among the glassy offices of Liverpool St.

Head inside and you’ll note tessellating Arabic tiles, marble floors, stained glass decor and oriental rugs, before settling into your seat and being presented with a drinks menu, from which you’ll almost immediately glean that all of their spirits are house-infusions.

Indeed, even their cocktails are aged: the Bottled from the Lost City of Z boasts coconut, almond-infused rum and pineapple “thrown together for a couple of weeks”.

And if you really feel like celebrating, well you can always take a dip in the dedicated Champagne tub.

See, in a way this is still a bath house.

NOTE: By Appointment Only is now closed except for private hire – find out more HERE.

By Appointment Only | Victorian Bath House, Bishopsgate Churchyard, EC2M 3TJ

Like your basement drinking bars? Then maybe, just maybe, you’ll like this place.