American Bar
at The Savoy

There are bars with history, and then there is the American Bar at The Savoy. Opening in 1893, it spent the following century defining what a London cocktail bar could be. Ada Coleman shook her way into legend here between 1903 and 1926, inventing the Hanky Panky and cementing the bar's reputation as the place where serious drinking happened. Harry Craddock followed, formalising the White Lady and the Corpse Reviver No. 2 and writing the Savoy Cocktail Book — still in print, still essential.

Today the room feels precisely as it should: art deco without apology, with inlaid marquetry panels, leather seating that has held everyone from Humphrey Bogart to Marilyn Monroe, and a pianist who starts at 7pm and makes the whole place feel like you have stepped sideways into 1931. The current bar team handles the legacy with confidence, offering an impeccable list of house classics alongside seasonal specials.

This is not a bar you pop into on a whim. Come dressed. Come with someone worth impressing. Allow two hours minimum and order the Hanky Panky at some point, because standing in the room where Ada Coleman first made it is one of the few genuinely unrepeatable experiences left in London drinking.