Open since 1979 beneath the railway arches by Charing Cross, Heaven is one of the most storied gay nightclubs in the world and a cornerstone of London's LGBTQ+ history. From its earliest days on Villiers Street it offered a bold, unapologetic space for the community at a time when few such venues existed, and it has remained a symbol of queer nightlife ever since. Its warren of arches houses a large main floor and smaller rooms, giving it the scale to host everything from club nights to live sh.....

Set in a grand art deco building that began life as a cinema in the 1910s, Electric Brixton carries decades of south London entertainment history in its walls. The Town Hall Parade venue has worn many names over the years, including its celebrated spell as The Fridge, before reopening under its current identity as a club and live-music space. Its sweeping main room, with a balcony overlooking the floor, gives it the feel of a small theatre repurposed for the dancefloor. The programming runs br.....

A fiercely independent club and live-music space, Brixton Jamm has spent years championing grassroots culture on Brixton Road. Part bar, part club, part venue, it built its reputation on an open-minded booking policy and a welcoming, community-minded atmosphere far from the corporate end of London nightlife. Its rooms and outdoor terrace host a broad sweep of programming, from house and techno to reggae, drum and bass and live bands. The terrace in particular has become a favourite for sun-soa.....

An import of a notorious New York cabaret, The Box Soho brought its risque, theatrical brand of late-night entertainment to Walker's Court in 2011. More burlesque theatre than conventional nightclub, it pairs provocative variety performances with a club atmosphere, earning a reputation as one of the city's most outrageous and exclusive venues. The intimate room centres on a stage where dancers, cabaret acts and shock performers deliver shows designed to push boundaries. After the performances,.....

Rowley's occupies a building thick with history at 113 Jermyn Street in St James's, the very premises where the famous Wall's meat business was born. In 1790 a young Richard Wall was apprenticed to a pork butcher in nearby St James's Market, and by 1807 he had learned his trade well enough to take over from his master. From 1812 to 1901 the business held a remarkable succession of Royal Appointments, serving monarchs from King George IV through to King Edward VII, before the Wall family name w.....

Fergus Henderson's nose-to-tail philosophy found its fullest expression at St John, the spare, whitewashed restaurant set in a former smokehouse on St John Street in Clerkenwell. Since opening in 1994, it has been a manifesto for honest British cooking that uses the whole animal with respect and intelligence, a quiet revolution that reshaped a generation of kitchens. Roast bone marrow with parsley salad, the dish that became its signature, sits alongside tripe, devilled kidneys and other cuts .....

Established in 1974, the St Moritz on Wardour Street is London's oldest Swiss restaurant, a chalet-styled survivor that has brought a corner of the Alps to the heart of Soho for half a century. For most of that time it was presided over by its renowned proprietor and chef Armin Loetscher, whose name became synonymous with the place and its old-school hospitality. The menu is a tour of genuine Swiss classics: bubbling cheese fondues, veal Zurichoise, bratwurst and what regulars insist is the be.....

Wood-fired Beijing duck, prepared according to an ancient recipe and carved tableside, has made Min Jiang one of the most celebrated Chinese restaurants in London. The kitchen roasts its ducks over applewood, serving them in the traditional two courses, the prized crisp skin dipped in sugar before the meat is wrapped in pancakes, a ritual that draws diners back time and again. The restaurant sits on the tenth floor of the Royal Garden Hotel on Kensington High Street, and that elevated position.....

Ping Pong took its inspiration from a very old idea: the tea houses where, hundreds of years ago, merchants on the Silk Road would stop to rest, drink fragrant tea and share baskets of little steamed and fried snacks. From that ancient ritual of dim sum the brand built a bright, modern London restaurant, keeping the spirit of meeting to relax over shared plates and adding, after the first thousand years or so, a list of cocktails. Steamed dumplings, crisp-fried parcels, fluffy baked buns and s.....

Born in London's Soho in the mid-2000s, Ping Pong was the creation of restaurateur Kurt Zdesar, who set out to turn the shared ritual of dim sum into a slick, all-day dining brand. The idea drew on the old Silk Road tea houses, where travellers once paused to drink tea and share baskets of small steamed and fried snacks, updated for a modern city crowd. Backed by investment, the concept expanded rapidly, and within a few years Ping Pong had grown into one of the most recognisable dim sum names.....