The Best New Bars and Pubs in London for 2026 (So Far)

The rumours of London nightlife’s demise are somewhat) exaggerated. We should know – every time we publish a piece about a new bar, pub or club night, our audience gets clicking. And while we can acknowledge things are dicey – prices are high, pubs are closing at a rapid clip and noise complaints are making life harder than ever for publicans and bar owners – there are still plenty of fresh spots to make going out in London as interesting as ever.

With that, here are the best bars and pubs that have opened in London so far this year.

A teensy natural wine bar just off Streatham High Road is proving to have plenty of pull. The Rowdy Table – a pop-up concept gone permanent – is consistently crowded with south Londoners looking for good wines and good times, which come courtesy of co-founders Kevin Hale and Luke Cinque-White. Both are welcoming hosts who will happily walk visitors through the list of drops, which are sorted under categories like Bitches Diesel (sparkling) and Princess Petrol (rosé). All wines are from small, independent producers working sustainably, organically or biodynamically. It’s the type of fun, easygoing wine bar we all want in our neighbourhood.

You’ve got a decision to make when you arrive at Peckham Palais. Do you ascend the low-lit staircase for a cocktail at The Ballroom bar? Or is it straight downstairs to the club, a cavernous 500-capacity space with a world-class sound system? If you ask us, start with The Ballroom, a ’70s-style space, colour-drenched in red and punctuated by glossy tiles and intricate woodwork on the bar and DJ booth. It’s part of the reimagining of Peckham’s hulking neo-Renaissance building by the Night Group (Hackney’s Night Tales, NY’s Loft and Netil360), and it’s well worth a visit whether or not you’re dancing in the basement until 6am. Drinks punch above the weight of usual nightclub offerings, especially the vodka Martini, stirred through with hay-smoked olives, and a Sazerac with a banana-liquor twist.

Agave leads the way at this neon-soaked bar below El Pastor in Soho. Don’t expect any tired Mexican cliches here – instead, this is modern Mexico, thrumming with a soundtrack curated by guests that range from chefs to DJs and other cultural figures. The pillar of the bar is its seven Margaritas, seven agave-led cocktails and seven classic drinks (siete means seven) – the Broadsheet pick is the 777, inspired by the famous Margaritas served in the gardens of Mexico City institution San Angel Inn, which arrive ice-cold in a stainless-steel flask containing three pours. Crucially, it’s open till 1am every day, so the perfect spot to have in your arsenal for a midweek knees up.

Bobby’s opened last month in St Clement hotel, in tandem with Cafe Clement to little publicity – where co-founder Nick Jones wants to draw a diverse crowd to his glam hotel restaurant, he wants this bar to feel almost like a (very high-end) house party. It’s all lush textiles, sculptural seats and good times till late, buttressed by a “we’ll make what you like” approach to cocktails (proof leaving things to the experts yields results, which a Broadsheet editor discovered when they were made an excellent wet vodka Martini, a departure from their usual dirty and gin). In a bar scene of manufactured sex appeal and over-produced “good times” this is the real deal.

London isn’t short of bars specialising in specific cocktails (most recently Brutes, a craft Martini bar in Mayfair) – but as far as we know, it’s never had one dedicated to the Mint Julep. Cato is named after Cato Alexander, who was freed from slavery in the early 19th century, then opened Cato’s Tavern in New York City. Today, he’s known as a founder father of mixology, particularly when it comes to the Mint Julep, a blend of bourbon, muddled sugar, fresh mint and crushed ice. Here in this handsome, New York tavern-inspired bar, herbs are plucked from planters to bring freshness to a menu that champions domestic produce. Beyond the list of signature Juleps, there’s a host of cocktails with twists like the house Martini, with gin infused with rock oyster shells, and an Old Fashioned featuring brown butter, chicken broth and chestnut. Cato’s co-founders Andrew Taylor and Aiste Bart (who run hospitality group Bart & Taylor) are keeping things lively with residencies; the basement is currently taken over by Casual by Tayer, a six-week series by experimental Old Street bar Tayer & Elementary, which has currently shut due to a fire.

Since 2024, Hausu in Peckham Rye station’s former ticket office has been quietly building a rep for chef and co-owner Holly Middleton-Joseph’s sharp, lightly Italian cooking. And while drinks have always been a centrepiece of the Hausu experience, now Holly’s brother and co-founder Tom Middleton-Joseph has more latitude than ever to get experimental with his drinks, thanks to the bar they launched upstairs in March. It’s a red-drenched space separated by Twin Peaks-esque curtains where drinks change with the seasons and music plays a pivotal role with guest south London DJs piping through the sound system. It’s polished and thoughtful – and the perfect new playground for Peckhamites in 2026.

“It’s soft and delicate – the opposite of booze thrown into a bucket.” In creating Buster’s Stout Punch, one of The Prince’s signature cocktails – co-founder Aaron Wall (Homeboy Bar) wanted to subvert expectations around drinks served from huge punch bowls at the bar. And he’s succeeded. It’s a blend of three rums, cognac, lemon sherbet and Guinness, its tartness placated by the stout’s malty embrace. The bar is named after Jamaican ska pioneer Prince Buster, with a sunny ska soundtrack that pairs perfectly with the approachable drinks menu that even includes a how-to guide to Martinis, plus 10 team favourites if you can’t decide. Try a couple, but wedge in a ham-and-cheese toastie break in the middle, served with crisps.

The Mary Wollstonecraft was bound to be special: it’s by Nick Bailey, who founded The Robin in Crouch Hill in 2023, which quickly set an example for how a neighbourhood boozer can embed in a neighbourhood without the backing of a behemoth group. Like The Robin, The Mary Wollstonecraft oozes charm and care: a lush garden planted by its green-fingered owner, a roster of independent – mainly British – beer, wine and a line-up of DJs. Throw in an all-is-welcome approach and you have a pub that’s built for locals but will undoubtedly draw those from other postcodes.

Yes, it’s a record shop – but it’s also a bar, a cafe, a bottle shop, a listening bar, and an events space. Recently, it added a running club to its stable. There’s something so wonderful about witnessing someone bring the venue they’ve dreamed of to life – and that’s exactly what happened with One Eighty One, the community-focused space by local DJ and promoter Rod “Spin Doctor” Gilmore. This ’70s-inspired space, with bespoke wood panelling, vinyl racks and mid-century furniture, welcomes locals on laptops and crate-digging music-lovers during the day, and serves £10 house cocktails by night (ours is the Green Chilli Margarita). On weekends, the wooden record racks are covered and the furniture is cleared away to make space for dancing, often to DJs that Gilmore knows from his years on the Londno club scene.

We already knew that Alex Young and George de Vos were hospitality mavericks – but we weren’t expecting this. The founders of Goodbye Horses and The Dreamery, the former a sleek wine bar and restaurant, and the other a wine bar and ice-cream parlour – are known for sourcing a seriously impressive selection of low-intervention wines. So much so, that they needed more space. Originally, the nearby Stable Wines, a diminutive glass box off Essex Road, was an offsite wine cellar. Then, while many Londoners were still slogging through Dry January, they reimagined it as a subterranean wine bar. Down in this cavernous cellar, locals sip rare natural wines while conspiratorially crunching into garlic-buttered baguette slathered in molten, deep-fried Mont d’Or. Here, with candlelight dancing on bare, textured walls, it’s easy to lose track of time completely.