The Parlour at Clerkenwell

£8 - £20 / Cocktail bars, British

49-50 St John's Sq, London

Opening hours

7:30AM-11:30PM

Sunday 8AM-6PM
Monday Closed
Tuesday 7:30AM-11:30PM
Wednesday 7:30AM-11:30PM
Thursday 7:30AM-12AM
Friday 7:30AM-12AM
Saturday 8AM-12:30AM

Vintage Charm and Exquisite Cocktails Await!

Stepping into this upper-crust hideout after a frantic day of urban adventuring feels like stumbling upon a gin-soaked haven where time hasn’t been invented yet. Nestled snugly beneath what I suspect was once an unusually handsome townhouse, this quirky cocktail lounge offers up more bohemian charm than my last European holiday. Picture lounging with your weary companions alongside plush seating that warns you in hushed tones never to leave, surrounded by 1920s-esque decor oozing with eccentric elegance—think Gatsby meets Grandma’s mysterious attic. The dimly lit ambiance, serenaded by war-era jazz, combines with the charm of a staff who, when prompted, manifest like culinary genies bearing offerings from an achingly diverse menu: colossal “small plates” that evidently scoff at conventional definitions.

And then, there are the potions themselves: cocktails as mystifying as the names given them. My misadventures included the audacious “King Kong,” transporting me through flavors exotic enough to spark its own diplomatic crisis. The creativity in these liquid indulgences sees no bounds, particularly when modern concoctions integrate whimsical touches reminiscent of alchemist experiments—glance furtively towards clarified milk or that truffle-infused old-fashioned. Service, however, vacillated between overly attentive and playfully elusive long enough for a second round of orders to become a rare commodity, but when one can order both bergamot tea and a gunpowder cocktail in the same breath, interruptions become momentary lapses in an otherwise victorious escape from the mundane. Good luck resisting the siren call of a return visit; this lounge is an unbelievably faithful purveyor of delightfully peculiar evenings. — Penelope Savory