Walk up the stairs from Rules Restaurant in Covent Garden and you’ll find one of London’s finest cocktail bars, in the room where Edward VII conducted his affair with Lillie Langtry.
Most people know about Rules. London’s oldest restaurant, founded in 1798 by Thomas Rule as an oyster bar serving the Covent Garden market traders, has been part of the city’s fabric for over two centuries. What fewer people know is that directly above it, through a door that most diners walk past on their way to their table, is one of the best cocktail bars in London.
The room
The Winter Gardens bar occupies the first floor of Rules, in what was once the private dining room of King Edward VII. The room where, rumour has it, he conducted his long affair with actress Lillie Langtry. The interior earns its history: plush red seating, wood panelling, royal portraits, a hunting frieze running the length of the room and warm metals that make it feel like a private members’ club without the waiting list or the annual fee. The glass-topped atrium section, filled with palms and eccentric artwork with seating comfortable enough for several hours, is the specific spot that tends to make people stop mid-conversation and look around in quiet delight.
No reservations are taken in the bar or Winter Gardens. You just turn up. Which means it rewards the spontaneous as much as the planned.
The cocktails
Head bartender Brian Silva has been at Rules long enough that his name is now synonymous with the bar itself, and the cocktails reflect decades of accumulated craft. The classics are where he excels: the Dry Martini here is the standard against which others get measured. The Bloody Mary has its own devoted following.
Among the signatures, The Duchess of Cambridge, a blend of pink pepper gin, vodka and Lillet, is elegant and precise. The Duchess of Sussex, combining cognac, elderflower liqueur and champagne nectar, is the one to order if you want to understand why the room fills with theatre crowd regulars night after night.
The menu balances classics given a Silva twist with a short, ever-evolving list of house creations. There’s no gimmickry here. No dry ice, no elaborate garnish towers. Just well-made drinks in a beautiful room, served by people who know what they’re doing.
Each cocktail is absolutely perfect. It turns out that when you spend several decades honing your craft as Silva has, the end result can be pretty spectacular.
The insider’s bolthole
The theatre crowd who fill this place, and the faces you’ll recognise from stage and screen among them, have found it for a reason. It’s the kind of place you come for one drink and stay for three, not because anyone is pushing you but because leaving feels like the wrong decision.
If you want to go further, Rules runs cocktail masterclasses with Silva. They’re among the best of their kind in London.
The London x London Take: Rules’ cocktail bar is one of those genuinely rare things in London: a room with serious history, serious drinks and no attitude about either. Go on a weekday evening, let the barman make the call on what you drink, and stay until you genuinely have to leave.
Need to Know
- Where: Upstairs at Rules, 34-35 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7LB
- Hours: Check rules.co.uk for current opening times
- Price: ££££
- Note: No reservations taken in the bar or Winter Gardens, walk-ins only
- Website: rules.co.uk
