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The best rooftop bars in London

Rumpus Rooms 
Rumpus Rooms

Just as The Drifters sang, everything is all right up on the roof. More than all right: London now boasts an impressive array of high-rise venues offering the height of good drinking.

From City skyscrapers and summertime pop-ups to riverside terraces and top-floor gardens, here are our 10 favourite rooftop bars in London. 

Aviary

best rooftop bars in London Aviary
Aviary

Some rooftop bars are content to welcome summer with a smattering of deck chairs and garden benches. Not so this 10th-floor venue, which enlisted the services of top design outfit Russell Sage Studio to create a terrace with a marble bar as its centrepiece and firepits for when it gets chilly.

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Cocktails come in copper tankards or pineapple goblets and include Espresso Martini on tap and the Frosé, a frozen blend of rosé, vermouth and strawberries that is basically a slush puppy for adults. DJs play Wednesday to Friday while weekends are the time to brunch on king scallop crumpet with seaweed butter and hollandaise.

Montcalm Royal London House Hotel, 22-25 Finsbury Square, London, EC2A 1DX; aviarylondon.com        

Bōkan 

Turn a blind eye to the fact you’re drinking in a Novotel and focus instead on the river views upstream to the City from this surprisingly stylish 39th-floor bar.

Cushion-covered daybeds provide a restful spot for the workers of Canary Wharf’s skyscrapers, who may feel some kinship with the bees toiling in hives to provide the raw material for honey-based cocktails.

best rooftop bars in London Bokan terrace - Credit: ABACApress/Didier Delmas
Bokan terrace Credit: ABACApress/Didier Delmas

Other drinks are inspired by the ingredients that used to pour in to the surrounding docks from all over the world: the gin and jasmine tea-based Royal Captain, or tequila and cactus-syrup Slipway, say.

Bottomless Prosecco brunches on Sunday are played out to a soundtrack of live jazz.

Novotel Canary Wharf, 40 Marsh Wall, London, E14 9TP; bokanlondon.co.uk 

Boundary Rooftop 

Can’t blag your way in to Shoreditch House? Then head round the corner to Boundary Rooftop, a summertime oasis of wicker sofas, pots of herbs and a wood-burning fire that is as rustic-Tuscan-chic as you would expect from somewhere designed by Sir Terence Conran.

best rooftop bars in London  Boundary rooftop - Credit:  Helen Cathcart
Boundary rooftop Credit: Helen Cathcart

It’s glorious when the sun is shining, there’s a heated orangery (complete with citrus trees) if it rains – but the best time to visit is after dark, when the twinkling lights of the City’s skyscrapers look like a site-specific art installation. Gin-and-tonics are made from cuttings from the garden, cocktails come in pitchers to share and there is steak and seafood from the grill.

2-4 Boundary Street, London, E2 7DD; boundary.london 

Coq d’Argent 

Coq d’Argent boasts not just a terrace but also a neatly trimmed lawn, edged with box hedges and surrounded by a walkway to promenade around while taking in the view of the Square Mile, drink in hand. Seventy different blends of whisky can be sampled as flights (the £150 Royal Flight includes Karuizawa 1981) and you also have access to Coq’s excellent French wine list.

best rooftop bars in London Coq d’Argent  - Credit: Thomas Alexander
Coq d’Argent Credit: Thomas Alexander

If you can’t stand the heat, a walled terrace provides some shade, while the bar inside has recently been refurbished à la 1920s Paris, all aged brass, bronze glass, escargot snacks and cocktails with names like La Belle Epoque.

Rammed with suits Monday to Friday, weekends are a whole lot more civilised, when the City turns into a 28 Days Later ghost town.

1 Poultry, London, EC2R 8EJ; coqdargent.co.uk 

Madison 

A bar on top of a shopping centre might not sound like the most alluring prospect but this one is on the roof of the City’s upmarket One New Change and boasts huge terraces with up-close-and-personal views of St Paul’s Cathedral. Sold!

best rooftop bars in London Madison  - Credit: Justine Trickett
Madison Credit: Justine Trickett

Cool off with a frozen berry daiquiri or a flute of Möet & Chandon Ice then get stuck into a £90 sharing cocktail: the Jäger Blast is a legal high best appreciated from on high.

Soak up the booze with burgers, baby back ribs and slow-roasted shoulder of lamb and make the most of being outside by lighting up a Cohiba Siglo. DJs play Thursday to Saturday.

1 New Change, London, EC4M 9AF; madisonlondon.net

Oxo 

Once the giddy height of rooftop drinking and dining in London, eighth-floor Oxo has long been eclipsed by high-rise City restaurants, but there’s still something to be said for being able to appreciate the dome of St Paul’s at eye level and watching the river flow past below without layers of protective plate glass in the way.

best rooftop bars in London  Oxo  - Credit: Michael Kyle
Oxo Credit: Michael Kyle

Harvey Nichols ownership means there’s some chic seating on the narrow terrace as well as own-label bargains on the wine list (a magnum of Champagne for £130, rosé fizz for £75). Otherwise, choose from two dozen cocktails and snack on beer-battered prawns.

Barge House Street, London, SE1 9PH; harveynichols.com       

Pergola on the Roof 

I had to look up "pergola" in the dictionary to remind myself what it means: "An arched structure in a garden or park consisting of a framework covered with climbing or trailing plants", according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

This pergola is to reopen this year on 26th April after its successful five-month residency on the roof of the old BBC Television Centre in Shepherd’s Bush last year.

best rooftop bars in London Pergola on the Roof 
Pergola on the Roof

Food comes courtesy of such London luminaries as modern Brit 8 Hoxton Square, burger heroes Patty and Bun and catch of the day seafood stars Bonnie Gull, while the centre of the 600-capacity site is taken up with a bar serving summery drinks.

Television Centre, Wood Lane, London, W12 7RJ; pergolaontheroof.co.uk

Radio Rooftop Bar 

Book ahead to avoid the queues for this hotel bar, which can sometimes match altitude with attitude. Make it up to the 10th-floor though and 360-degree views are the pay off, stretching from the Shard and St Paul’s downstream to the London Eye and Big Ben up west.

best rooftop bars in London Radio Rooftop Bar  - Credit: Chris Orange/Chris Orange
Radio Rooftop Bar Credit: Chris Orange/Chris Orange

The global finger food (grilled lamb cutlets with chermoula, tandoori salmon with mint salsa) has the feel of a posh barbecue, while a "bottle package" starts from £1,000 for two bottles of Grey Goose and two magnums of Bollinger Rosé – just the thing to make the centrepiece of your table and rock the Ibiza beach club vibe of it all. Daytimes – long lunches and weekend brunches ‒ are less hectic.

ME London, 336-337 Strand, London, WC2R 1HA; radiorooftop.com

Rumpus Rooms 

Star bartender Ryan Chetiyawardana’s Dandelyan might get the drinks geeks beating a path to Mondrian London but in-the-know imbibers follow the neon pink signs to the hotel’s Rumpus Rooms.

The original Tom Dixon chicness has been replaced by a pink-and-peacock blue colour scheme apparently designed to evoke the Hamptons, a visual jolt akin to when Mad Men moved from mid-century modern to 1960s psychedelia. But you probably won’t notice any of that as you scoot straight out on to the 12th-floor terrace with views over the Thames to St Paul’s and the City towers.

best rooftop bars in London  Rumpus Rooms   - Credit:  Niall Clutton
Rumpus Rooms Credit: Niall Clutton

Back inside, Anglo-American drinks reflect the hotel’s transatlantic theme. My favourite is the virgin Milk Pays the Bills boozed up with a slug of gin: hardshake heaven.  

20 Upper Ground, London, SE1 9PD; morganshotelgroup.com

Sushisamba 

I was once having a drink in Sushisamba when a storm passed in full throttle overhead: thunderbolts and lightning, very very exciting when you’re 38 floors up in the air and it feels like the building you’re in is poking right into the clouds.

best rooftop bars in London Sushisamba  - Credit:  Ming Tang-Evans
Sushisamba Credit: Ming Tang-Evans

If it’s not raining, head outside to a terrace where a golden tree forms the centrepiece of the circular bar, although the bird’s eye view right onto the Gherkin and over the rest of London is way better inside.

Accomplished cocktails such as a Nashi Martini or Mango Batida from drinks supremo Richard Woods reflect the Japanese/Brazilian fusion of the kitchen. Snack on a salmon and jalapeño roll: sushi with a hip wiggle of samba.

110 Bishopsgate, London, EC2N 4AY; sushisamba.com

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