Gordon’s Wine Bar | A Crepuscular Cellar Bar Along the Embankment
There are a small number of unspoken, detailed and fail-safe rules in the world of dating.
Like:
1) Brush your teeth.
2) Be fun. And,
3) Take your date to Gordon’s Wine Bar.
Established, approximately, in 1890, it’s widely considered to be the oldest of all London’s wine bars, and has been frequented by the likes of G. K. Chesterton, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. It’s also thought to share the same building Rudyard Kipling once called home (he who wrote exceedingly good books). The original license for the place is said to date back to the 14th century, when King Edward III granted Arthur Gordon the freedom to sell wine anywhere in London. Fast-forward a couple of centuries, and in the 1970s Gordon’s Wine Bar came into the possession of another Gordon family, who still run it 50 years on.
A crepuscular, subterranean, semi-circular cave carved from bedrock, and lit by candle light, Gordon’s Wine Bar is found right by the riverside, next to Embankment tube. Here, you can escape underground and tuck yourself away in a corner to sample an award-winning wine list of unsuspectingly modern drops from both the classic regions of France and Italy to South America and beyond.
And what better accompaniment to world-class wine than cheese (of which there are twenty-something to choose from) as well as a number of laid-back, snack-size dishes like pate with freshly baked bread, and peppers stuffed with feta cheese.
Of course if romantic, candlelit, and cosy wine cellars aren’t your idea of romance, then:
1) Well done for thinking outside of the box, and
2) You’ll be pleased to know that aside from the cellar, the remainder of Gordon’s Wine Bar is essentially a portal into Dickensian London. Fading wooden walls are covered in historical newspaper cuttings and 18th Century memorabilia, while outside there’s a terrace – open all year round, but perfect for that other natural partner to Old World wines: warm, sun-drenched outdoor BBQs of hamburgers and hotdogs with a selection of fries…
…you just need the weather to ketchup.
NOTE: Gordon’s Wine Bar is open Mon-Sat 11am-11pm and Sun 12-10pm, although the terrace is closed on Mondays. You can make reservations for groups of 8-10 people only via their website HERE.
Gordon’s Wine Bar | 47 Villiers Street, Embankment, WC2N 6NE
Feeling peckish? Head away from the river to scout out some of Covent Garden’s top restaurants