The Best Cosy Winter Bars in London

Swift runs two very different rooms across two floors, and both earn their place on this list for different reasons. The ground-floor bar is livelier, with a standing-room-welcome policy and a wine and cocktail list of strong depth. The downstairs room — accessed via a narrow staircase — is quieter, darker, and lit by candles and a series of amber wall sconces that make everyone look like they are sitting for a Dutch Golden Age portrait. The winter cocktail menu leans into aged spirits, warm spices, and stirred-down length. Opens from 3pm weekdays.

Order: The Earl of Soho — Scotch whisky, Lapsang Souchong tea syrup, lemon, honey, served warm in a handled glass

One of the original East London creative cocktail bars and still one of the best. The front bar is cosy and informal — mismatched seating, low light, exposed brick — and accessible without a booking on most weeknights. The JubJub Room in the back is accessed through a wardrobe door and requires a reservation. The winter menu at Callooh Callay has been consistently strong across multiple years: well-conceived, seasonally anchored, and executed with the confidence of a bar that has been refining its approach for over a decade.

Order: The Brillig — spiced rum, gingerbread syrup, cold brew coffee, cream float — a winter signature

The bar at The Langham Hotel, designed around a British public house concept executed at luxury hotel scale. The room is genuinely beautiful — high ceilings, ornate tile work, dark mahogany — and the cocktail programme, developed by the same team behind several notable London openings, is built around British ingredients and classic pub culture elevated to cocktail bar standards. In winter, the atmosphere is particularly strong: the room fills with warmth quickly and the service standard is consistently high. Bookable online.

Order: The Wigmore Cup — a winter version of the house punch, built on British apple brandy with warm spices

A neighbourhood cocktail bar that has been one of the most consistent operations in East London for years. The room is small, the light is low, and the cocktail list is concise and well-sourced. In winter the bar runs a hot cocktail programme of about four or five drinks — the mulled cider Negroni riff is the one we keep coming back to — and the prices remain accessible for the level of quality. Walk-ins are almost always possible on weeknights. One of the bars our editors genuinely return to without it being work.

Order: The Hot Toddy Riff — house-infused blended Scotch, spiced apple, lemon, honey, served steaming

Open Saturday afternoons only, Kernel's taproom at their Bermondsey brewery is one of London's most particular drinking experiences. You sit in the actual production space, drink straight from tank on some visits, and the selection is exclusively whatever they have brewed that week. In winter the stouts, porters, and warming barrel-aged beers make this the most atmosphere-appropriate option on the Bermondsey Beer Mile. Arrive by 1pm in winter to guarantee a space before it fills up.

Order: Ask what is freshest from tank — the stout and porter range in winter is their strongest season

A bar in an actual Victorian cellar beneath a converted warehouse, with exposed brick arching overhead and enough ambient warmth from the low ceilings and close seating to make you forget it is below ground. The cocktail list is sensible and well-sourced, and the winter additions lean heavily into rich, warming profiles — fortified wines, aged spirits, warm allspice and cinnamon. Capacity of about forty people means it fills fast on weekend evenings; weeknights are more manageable.

Order: The Bermondsey Brown — Cognac, sweet vermouth, coffee liqueur, cardamom bitters, stirred and served up

A Victorian corner pub that runs a serious bar programme without sacrificing what makes it a proper pub. The back bar stocks forty-plus whiskies, the wine list is carefully chosen, and the upstairs dining room serves food worth eating. In winter the ground floor fills with warmth and conversation from about 6pm onwards, and the combination of a proper pint, a good whisky selection, and food that does not disappoint makes it one of the most complete winter bar experiences in East London.

Order: A pint of whatever cask ale is freshest, or ask for the current bartender's whisky recommendation

One of the most intact Victorian pub interiors in London — the original snob screens are still in place, the frosted glass etching is original, and the warmth of the room in winter is a function of architecture rather than heating technology. Young's ales on cask, unpretentious food, and a crowd that skews older and more local than the Bloomsbury tourist corridor. The editors return to this one specifically in winter: the atmosphere at 7pm on a Tuesday in November is unrepeatable elsewhere in central London.

Order: A pint of Young's Special or Ordinary — drink it at the bar and stay for a second

The best of the Craft Beer Co. group of pubs, occupying a converted Victorian building in Clerkenwell with exposed brick, wooden floors, and a tap list of forty-plus rotating craft beers. In winter the stout and porter selection is genuinely excellent — they rotate through some of the best British and European dark beers available — and the food is substantial enough for a full evening. The back room has a fireplace that operates in winter and a level of warmth and quiet that the front bar cannot match.

Order: Ask what imperial stouts are on tap — they typically have two or three exceptional dark beers running in winter