Holborn
Bleeding Heart Tavern is on the corner of Bleeding Heart Yard and Greville Street, close to Hatton Garden. It is part of the Bleeding Heart group, which also...
Farringdon 2 min · Bookable
Cover story
Quiet pubs, bars and cafés in London to talk
Quiet pubs, bars and cafés in London with snugs, soft furnishings and no thumping playlists, so you can hear the answer.
The little black book
Quiet pubs, bars and cafés in London to talk
Quiet pubs, bars and cafés in London with snugs, soft furnishings and no thumping playlists, so you can hear the answer.
Central London
Chapter 1 · 21 pubs, bars and cafés
Mayfair
Dukes Bar has been part of Dukes London on St James's Place since 1908, and it is famous for martinis made at your table with no ice. It is open from 3pm to...
Green Park 5 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Mayfair
The Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon is on the fourth floor of Fortnum & Mason at 181 Piccadilly. Queen Elizabeth II opened it on 1 March 2012, and it serves a full...
Green Park 2 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Soho
Maison Bertaux has been making cakes on Greek Street since 1871, when Monsieur Bertaux arrived from Paris. It is a tiny patisserie and tea room with mismatched...
Tottenham Court Road 5 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Mayfair
The Monocle Café is the magazine's café on Chiltern Street in Marylebone, with seats on the ground floor and in the basement. It opens from 7am to 8pm on...
Baker Street 6 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Holborn
Prufrock Coffee has been serving coffee and food on Leather Lane since 2011. It is one of the cafés that shaped London's speciality coffee scene, and its food...
Chancery Lane 3 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Bloomsbury
St JOHN at the Bookshop is the St JOHN bakery café next door to the London Review Bookshop at 14 Bury Place in Bloomsbury. It opened in October 2025, serving...
Holborn 7 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Bloomsbury
Store Street Espresso is a speciality coffee bar on Store Street in Bloomsbury, near UCL. It opened in 2010 and was among the first in London to feature guest...
Goodge Street 4 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Mayfair
The Audley is a Victorian pub on Mount Street in Mayfair, built in 1888 and designed by Thomas Verity. It has been restored by Artfarm, and its ceiling is a...
Green Park 7 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Blackfriars
The Blackfriar is a Grade II* listed pub on Queen Victoria Street, opposite Blackfriars station. It was built in 1875 on the site of a Dominican friary and...
Blackfriars 1 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Mayfair
The Champion is a Grade II listed Samuel Smith's pub on the corner of Wells Street and Eastcastle Street in Fitzrovia. Its stained-glass windows of Victorian...
Oxford Circus 5 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Mayfair
The Golden Lion is a Greene King pub on King Street in St James's, a short walk from St James's Square. The pub says it was once frequented by Lillie Langtry...
Green Park 6 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Islington
The Holy Tavern is the small pub at 55 Britton Street in Clerkenwell that many people still know as the Jerusalem Tavern. The room was recreated in 1996 as an...
Farringdon 1 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Holborn
The Lamb is a Grade II listed Young's pub on Lamb's Conduit Street in Bloomsbury, dating back to the 1720s. It keeps its hinged snob screens around the bar,...
Russell Square 5 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Bloomsbury
The Museum Tavern stands opposite the British Museum on Great Russell Street. It dates back to 1723, when it was the Dog and Duck, and took its current name in...
Tottenham Court Road 5 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Bloomsbury
The Queen's Larder is a small pub on the corner of Queen Square in Bloomsbury. You can book a table in the upstairs lounge, or the whole room, by calling 020...
Russell Square 6 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Islington
The Sekforde opened as a pub on Sekforde Street in Clerkenwell in 1829 and traded without a break for 176 years. It closed in 2015 for restoration and reopened...
Farringdon 3 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Mayfair
The Wallace Restaurant is in the glass-roofed courtyard of the Wallace Collection on Manchester Square. You can drop in for coffee and cake, or book the à la...
Bond Street 8 min · Bookable
Mayfair
The Wigmore is the pub at The Langham on Langham Place, with a menu overseen by Michel Roux. Its three-cheese toastie is famous, and it serves a Sunday roast...
Oxford Circus 3 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Holborn
Ye Olde Mitre hides down Ely Court, a narrow alley between Hatton Garden and Ely Place. It is a historic ale house with real ales on tap, homemade bar snacks...
Chancery Lane 3 min · Bookable
St Paul's
Ye Olde Watling is a Nicholson's pub on Watling Street, a short walk from St Paul's Cathedral. It was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren in 1668 for the workers...
Mansion House 1 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
North London
Chapter 2 · 7 pubs, bars and cafés
West Hampstead
Burgh House Café is in Burgh House, a Queen Anne house of 1704 in Hampstead that is now a museum. It has a garden terrace, and the museum is free to visit. It...
Hampstead 1 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Highbury
Ink@84 is an independent bookshop on Highbury Park that also serves coffee, wine, craft beer and gin. It opens from 10am to 6pm Monday to Saturday and from...
Highbury & Islington 6 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Muswell Hill
The Red Lion & Sun is a privately owned pub in Highgate Village, with two beer gardens and a wood-burning fire. There has been a pub on the site since the 16th...
Highgate 3 min · Bookable
Gospel Oak
The Brew House is the café in the service wing at Kenwood, the English Heritage house on the northern edge of Hampstead Heath. It serves sandwiches, salads and...
Hampstead Heath 3 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Islington
The Duke of Cambridge, now The Duke Organic, is on St Peter's Street in Islington. It opened in 1998 as Britain's first organic pub, certified by the Soil...
Angel 3 min · Bookable
West Hampstead
The Wells is a Georgian pub on Well Walk in Hampstead, close to the Heath. It serves lunch and dinner every day on the ground floor, and the first-floor dining...
Hampstead 1 min · Bookable
Highbury
Yield N16 is a wine shop and bar on Newington Green, pouring low-intervention wines by the glass with cheese and charcuterie. It is open daily from 10am to...
Canonbury 2 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
East London
Chapter 3 · 4 pubs, bars and cafés
East Greenwich
Black Eye Coffee is a café at 85 Trafalgar Road in Greenwich, serving breakfast and speciality coffee. It has a garden at the back, away from the Cutty Sark...
Greenwich 3 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Whitechapel
Rochelle Canteen is Margot Henderson's restaurant in a converted school bike shed off Arnold Circus in Shoreditch. It opened in 2004, and its walled garden...
Shoreditch High Street 1 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Wapping
The Gallery Café is the award-winning vegan café at St Margaret's House on Old Ford Road in Bethnal Green. It has been plant-based since it opened in 2006,...
Bethnal Green 1 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Stepney
The Grapes is a narrow riverside pub on Narrow Street in Limehouse, and its history goes back more than 500 years. Charles Dickens drank here and wrote it into...
Limehouse 2 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
South London
Chapter 4 · 3 pubs, bars and cafés
Dulwich
The café at Dulwich Picture Gallery sits in the gallery grounds on Gallery Road, opposite Dulwich Park. It serves brunch, lunch and light refreshments from 8am...
West Dulwich 1 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Peckham
Petitou is a neighbourhood café on Choumert Road in Peckham, serving coffee and food since 2003. Its terrace is tiled with a ceramic aerial map of Peckham by...
Peckham Rye 4 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Tulse Hill
The Rosendale is a big food-led pub on Rosendale Road in West Dulwich, with plenty of garden space. It serves a weekday lunch menu from noon to 3.30pm, Monday...
West Dulwich 4 min · Bookable
West London
Chapter 5 · 4 pubs, bars and cafés
Kew
Newens The Original Maids of Honour is a bakery and tea room on Kew Road, opposite Kew Gardens. It has served Richmond for more than a century and a half, and...
Kew Gardens 2 min · Bookable
Mortlake
Orange Pekoe is a tea room and loose-leaf tea shop at 3 White Hart Lane in Barnes, a short walk from Barnes Bridge station. It serves breakfast, lunch and a...
Barnes Bridge 2 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Petersham
The Teahouse is the walk-in café at Petersham Nurseries, off Petersham Road in Richmond. It serves seasonal food, cakes, whole-leaf teas and coffee among the...
Richmond 7 min · Walk-in
Walk-in
Petersham
The Petersham is a hotel on Nightingale Lane, high on Richmond Hill. Its restaurant serves breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner, with views over the...
Richmond 5 min · Bookable
Frequently asked questions
When are these places quietest?
Earlier in the day, almost everywhere. Weekday mornings and early afternoons are the calmest at most of these quiet pubs, bars and cafés in London, and evenings get louder, with after-work crowds at places like Gordon's Wine Bar and The Wigmore. Several are daytime only. Each venue note says when it's calmest, and where a place is livelier than quiet, we say so. For a livelier after-work pint, see After-Work Drinks. For a louder City dinner when quiet isn't the point, see Square Mile Weeknights.
Can I work on a laptop in any of them?
In some. Store Street Espresso and Prufrock Coffee are the easy ones, and Age Exchange Cafe, Ink@84, Petitou, St John's Bakery and The Gallery Cafe also carry a laptop-friendly tag. Monocle Café is the exception: laptops are discouraged there. Most of these are daytime venues, so check hours before you plan a long session.
How does FairWhere pick a fair place?
Here, fair means the journey. Add where everyone is starting from and FairWhere ranks these quiet pubs, bars and cafés in London by how evenly the travel is shared across your group, using the FairWhere Score. The shortlist is picked for quiet. The ranking is not about popularity, sponsorship or who suggested it first.
Where next
Date SpotsWhen you want more atmosphere: speakeasies, rooftops, tea rooms, whatever the date is.
Free Museums: LondonA calm daytime plan, with the coffee saved for afterwards.
After-Work DrinksLivelier, bookable pubs for when the catch-up can take a bit of noise.
More from FairWhere
- Square Mile WeeknightsA louder City dinner, for when quiet isn't the point.
- Pubs Near Big StationsTerminus pubs when the group arrives on different trains.
- Hampstead Heath Meeting PointsA Heath pin first, then a calm room afterwards.
- Midpoint vs FairWhereThinking of meeting halfway? See why the midpoint is not always fair.
- Browse meeting pointsMeeting between areas rather than at a venue? Browse meeting points.