Famous for its rolling three-month residencies, XOYO turned a simple programming idea into one of London's most influential club formats after opening in Shoreditch in 2010. By handing a single artist a curated season of dates, it let DJs build immersive runs of nights and gave clubbers a reason to return week after week. The two-floor venue pairs a pulsing basement dancefloor with an upper level, creating distinct spaces under one roof. Its residency series has hosted a roll-call of leading n.....

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.....

Since 1990, The Jazz Cafe has been one of Camden's most beloved music venues, a intimate room on Parkway where the bill stretches far beyond its name. Despite the title, its stage has long hosted soul, funk, hip-hop, Afrobeat and electronic acts alongside jazz, making it a cornerstone of London's live-music scene. The compact, balconied space wraps the crowd close around the stage, giving gigs an intensity that larger halls cannot match. Diners can watch from a mezzanine restaurant overlooking.....

Reopened in 2022 after a dramatic fire and a sweeping restoration, KOKO returned one of London's most storied music venues to the stage in spectacular fashion. The Camden landmark occupies a grand former theatre dating back to the early 1900s, a building that has lived many lives, including a celebrated spell as the Camden Palace in the post-punk and New Romantic years. Its sumptuous, theatre-style auditorium, ringed with tiered balconies, gives both gigs and club nights a sense of grand occasi.....

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.....