Best-of list · City Guide
The best cosy winter bars in London — from wood-panelled Marylebone dens to candlelit Bermondsey cellars. Our editors pick the warmest spots in the city.
The short answer
9 ranked rooms follow. How we picked is at the end of this guide.
London does cosy winter bars extraordinarily well — better, arguably, than almost any other city — because the architecture has been doing half the work for three hundred years. The cosy winter bars in London that matter are not the ones with the best Instagram presence. They are the ones with the right combination of low ceilings, natural materials, candlelight, and a bartender who has been there long enough to know the regulars. We have been working through the current options and these are the ones worth seeking out.
Central London's winter bar scene concentrates in a few key pockets: Soho and Fitzrovia for the independent cocktail rooms, Marylebone for the old-school pub-meets-bar hybrid, and the City fringes for the converted spaces that combine historic architecture with serious drinks programmes.
How we picked
London's best cosy winter bars split into two categories: the cocktail rooms — Swift, Callooh Callay, The Wigmore — where the drinks programme and the room design both contribute to the atmosphere; and the traditional pubs — The Lamb, The Princess of Shoreditch — where the cosy winter bar experience is a function of architecture and community that no amount of design investment can replicate. We recommend visiting both categories in the same evening: start at The Lamb for a pint at 6pm, then move to Swift for the downstairs room and the warm winter cocktail programme.
If December is when you do your best bar-going, London's Christmas cocktail menus deserve their own attention. Bars like Artesian, Swift and Callooh Callay produce seasonal menus in November and December that rank among the most creative in the city. Our editors have covered the best Christmas cocktail menus in London in detail — it's the logical next stop after finding your cosy winter local. For outdoor winter drinking done properly, the city's igloo bars and heated pod venues are the other side of London's winter bar scene — warmer than you'd expect, and booked out further ahead than almost anything on this list.
Sofia covers the European bar scene for barsforKings, based between London and Lisbon. She has strong opinions about the correct temperature for a hot toddy and can name the best fireplace pub in every London borough.
Last reviewed 2026-05-28 · The editors recheck hours and closures against current local coverage.