Rosewood LondonScarfes Bar

Scarfes Bar, inside Rosewood London, is the most easily accessible upscale pick and No.31 in the World's 50 Best Bars 2025. Named after caricaturist Gerald Scarfe, it has a gentleman's-club feel — his satirical paintings, more than 1,000 antique books, wingback chairs and a fireplace — plus live music seven nights a week (Mon-Sat 8pm-midnight, Sun 7-11pm). It is the better choice than Nightjar for a spontaneous, central, smart drink: it runs on a walk-in basis (reservations are taken only for hotel guests and groups of six or more), each table is held for 1.5 hours, and there is no cover charge or minimum spend, so you get hotel glamour and nightly jazz without the Mayfair price ceiling or Nightjar's extra charges. The trade-off is that its cocktails are not the top-ranked or most experimental of this group, and non-hotel guests under six can't reserve.