Cecil’s Bar

NOTE: Cecil’s Bar is now unfortunately closed, but has fortunately been reincarnated as Nine Lives. Fittingly.

Cecil’s Bar | London Bridge

Think about a really boring London bar.

Now stop thinking about that and instead think about a candlelit Chinese underworld where powerful cocktails, exotic interiors and live music potently combine within the confines of a subterranean, oriental playground built by real life set designers, and boom: you’ve got Cecil’s.

A combination of intelligence, guile, exceptionally good looks, a positive mental attitude and a very basic understanding of how to use Google Maps will quickly lead you to an unmarked door near London Bridge. Go through it, descend the staircase and in short order you’ll feel exactly as you might have always expected to feel after stumbling through a secret portal into an intoxicatingly clandestine speakeasy in Shanghai….

… which happens to be full of London expats.

In the run up to Christmas Cecil’s was lovingly devised in order to host nightly experiences at UFF Tea Merchants: glamorous, formal gatherings which transported Black Tie-clad guests back to 1936 (and which, incidentally, are still happening every Saturday night).

However for the rest of the week Cecil’s is now ditching the dress code and swinging open its mystical doors to the general public in order to serve up hand-crafted cocktails (starting at just £6) and live music inside what 96% of the two people we surveyed have totally agreed is currently one of the kookiest nightspots in London.

You can think about boring bars again now.

NOTE: Cecil’s Bar is now Nine Lives.

Cecil’s Bar | 8 Holyrood Street, SE1 2EL 

Enjoy speakeasy style bars? Check out our ultimate London speakeasy guide.