London amusements

100 Club

100 Oxford Street. Phone: 636 0933. (D2).

One of the two famous jazz clubs in London, simply fitted out. Modern jazz is for Monday and Friday, classic jazz on other days. The atmosphere is perfect.

Annabel‘s

44 Berkeley Square. Phone: 629 5974. (D2).

For three decades the top club in London, the place where princes of the royal family and the aristocracy mix and amuse themselves. For a while the place was invaded by oil-rich Arabs but they have now for the most been evicted. The walls are decorated with cartoons of famous people. There is dancing in the cellar.

It is extremely difficult to get in. The membership fee is £ 300. The best way is to know somebody who can invite us with him. A good dinner costs £ 60. This is an attractive and a civilized place with no signs on the outside.

Barbican

(G1).

In 1956 it was decided to build up Barbican, a desert from World War II air attacks and to have there modern apartments, shops, schools and cultural institutions. The building-up was finished in 1982 when the largest social and cultural center in Europe was opened. It is the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and famous are galleries.

Pedestrian life is absent and the architecture is dead, but sometimes, when something important is happening, Barbican fills up with life. This is a specialized place for culture. You come here for it and then leave, without making a stop at a café or restaurant in the area.

Ronnie Scotts

47 Frith Street. Phone: 439 0747. (E2).

For three decades one of the ten best jazz clubs in the world. Almost any name in jazz has performed here. It is usually crowded and the atmosphere is unusually agreeable. On the floor above there is Upstairs at Ronnie, the best known rock place in the center of London.

Stringfellows

16 Upper St Martins Lane. Phone: 240 5534. Hours: Closed Sunday. (E2).

The dance floor is enormous at the best disco in town. The guests are lively and the music matches. The food is acceptable. Temporary membership costs £ 5 Monday to Wednesday, £ 6 Thursday and £ 8 Friday and Saturday.

Bill Bentley‘s

31 Beauchamp Place. Hours: Closed Sunday. (C4).

In a beautiful Georgian house in an elegant shopping street. The wine bar is on the ground floor, an oyster bar in the basement and a restaurant upstairs.

Seafood is good and also cheeses. Wine and port are very good, some available by the glass.

Black Friar

174 Queen Victoria Street. (G2).

The unusual City pub is opposite the railway station with the same name. It is decorated with murals depicting drunken monks; marble, bronze and alabaster. As it is near Fleet Street it is an oasis for journalists and authors, who feel comfortable surrounded by the Art Nouveau decoration. Do notice the small nook behind the main bar.

Bunch of Grapes

207 Brompton Road. (B4).

Midway between the Harrods department store and the great museums of South Kensington, a ravishing Victorian pub boasting of extremely well cut mirrors and glass.

Charcos

1 Bray Place. Hours: Closed Sunday. (C4).

In the heart of Chelsea, quite near Kings Road, a pleasant and a popular place.

The cooking is good, offering tasty salads and some warm dishes. There is a good choice of wines and more so of port.

Cheshire Cheese

Wine Office Court, Fleet Street. (F2).

A friendly tavern at the north side of Fleet Street, one of the most famous pubs in the world. The authors Johnson and Boswell caroused there once upon a time. Today it still is one of the most effective grapevines in town. One of the bars is reserved for special journalists.

The house is from 1667, the year after the great fire. The atmosphere is full of British history, even if tourists are now in the majority among its guests.

Coach & Horses

5 Bruton Street. (D2).

In Mayfair, near Bond Street, a beautiful Tudor pub with two bars and an elegant clientele.

Cork & Bottle

44 Cranbourn Street. (E2).

Very well situated where the districts of Soho and Covent Garden meet, with theaters and cinemas all around. It is one of the best wine bars in town, the domain of the New Zealand couple Jean and Don Hewitson. The entrance is not very conspicuous and you have to walk down a narrow staircase to get to the basement bar. In spite of this the place is almost always full.

The guests are happy and the service is quick. Here you can order well prepared seafood, salads, patés, cheeses, courses of the day and puddings. Of about 120 wines about 20 are available by the glass. Almost half the bottles cost less than £6.

Downs

5 Down Street. (D3).

In the southern end of Mayfair, a refined bar offering service at tables. The clientele is mainly the young employees of the rich companies in the vicinity. In the evening people dine here at reserved tables.

Ebury

Ebury Street. (D4).

Near Victoria Station, one of the best wine bars in London, crowded with business people at lunch.

It sells good salads, grills, English puddings, cheeses and also courses of the day for £5. The wines are 50, thereof 10 available by the glass.

El Vino

47 Fleet Street. Hours: Closed Saturday evening and Sunday. (F2).

An old and famous wine bar in Fleet Street, crowded with gentlemen of the law and the press. In front there is a heavy Victorian bar, where only males were allowed until recently and only those males sporting a tie. Women had to sit in leather chairs at the back or in the restaurant downstairs.

The sandwiches are solid and the wines are good and varied, especially the port.

Globe

37 Bow Street. (E2).

Well situated near Covent Garden this lively Victorian pub is best known as the location of a shot in the movie Frenzy by Alfred Hitchcock.

Grenadier

18 Wilton Row. (C3).

Generally accepted as the most genuine pub in London. It is in an alley, which is difficult to find, just behind the Berkeley hotel in Knightsbridge. In the cellar there is the original tavern, a private ghost and a corridor for darts. Drinking is performed in three rooms, decorated in a haphazard way. This is a haven for elegant Belgravia regulars.

Guinea

30 Bruton Place. (D2).

Mayfair has its own special tavern. It is a small and simply appointed pub in a back street in a quiet part of Mayfair. It is usually crowded with people, spilling out in summer. The beef comes from the neighboring kitchen of Guinea Grill Room, one of the best steak houses in the center.

Lamb & Flag

Rose Street. (E2).

To the west in the Covent Garden area and conveniently near Soho, this ancient pub is in an alley which strangers sometimes have difficulty in finding. The tavern dates from 1623 and is one of the oldest in town. It is now mainly a hangout for actors from nearby theaters.

It is small and popular and the food is above average, so that customers often spill out into the alley.

Loose Box

7 Cheval Place. (B4).

From Brompton Road it is possible to enter the place by the back door. The main bar is on the ground floor and a restaurant upstairs. The bar is decorated with equestrian outfitting. Service is friendly and personal.

This is a good place for salads, cold cuts, cheeses, pies, steaks and puddings. The different wines are about 50 and 15 of them are available by the glass.

Mother Bunchs

Old Seacoal Lane. Hours: Closed Sunday. (G2).

Under the railway at Ludgate Circus at the end of Fleet Street. It is a big and a comfortable wine bar, formerly full of gentlemen of the press. It has wooden walls and a wooden floor. There are amusing lamps on the walls and sawdust on the floor.

Here you get a good, cold buffet at lunch, good wines and port.

Olde Watling

29 Watling Street. (G2).

Just behind St Pauls Cathedral, an old and oaky pub from the first years after the Great Fire of 1666. It is designed by the famous Christopher Wren, so that his cathedral builders could have a bite and a pint between working rounds.

A tavern has been here from the earliest time of civilization, as Via Vitellina, the Roman road, was alongside, leading to Dover and France. Now bankers dominate the alehouse. The food is better than the usual pub fare.

Olde Wine Shades

6 Martin Lane. Hours: Closed Saturday & Sunday. (H2).

An historical wine bar from 1663 in City, between the Monument and Cannon Street railway station. This is one of the very few houses that withstood the Great Fire of 1666. It has dark wood paneling and a secret passage in the restaurant basement.

At lunch bankers crowd this place, putting down good sausages and cold cuts with especially good wines and port, both types available by the glass.

Red Lion

2 Duke of York Street. (D3).

The top pub of St Jamess. It is a small and exquisite Victorian tavern with dainty glass partitions. This is the perfect pub decoration which has been imitated the world over.

Salisbury

Cecil Court, St Martins Lane. (E2).

One of the loveliest pubs in London, situated where the districts of Covent Garden and Soho meet. It is especially popular with theater people and other unusual types. Glass, mirrors and brass dominate Edwardian decorations. Many clients are also rather colorful, both in talk and fashion.

Do not forget that the best pub grub in central London is exactly here.

Shampers

4 Kingly Street. Hours: Closed Saturday evening and Sunday. (D2).

In a good location just east off Regent Street, offering a very good and extensive wine list, with many wines available by the glass. The bar is on the ground floor and downstairs a restaurant with warm dishes.

Cold courses are good, salads, cheeses and sausages.

1996

© Jónas Kristjánsson