The Bar

You're standing on Queen's Walk with the Thames stretching out in front of you, and The Bar knows exactly what it's doing with that view. It's the kind of place where you can actually have a conversation without shouting over house music, which feels rarer than it should be in London right now. The cocktails are taken seriously—none of that Instagram nonsense—and the bartenders move with the confidence of people who've done this a thousand times before. It's become a proper fixture for anyone working nearby or heading to the National Theatre, pulling in everyone from theatre-goers to riverside wanderers who've stumbled upon something decent.