The Rosewood London's living-room bar — Gerald Scarfe murals, nightly jazz, and Yann Bouvignies's flavour-led cocktail menus.
Scarfes Bar sits inside the Rosewood London on High Holborn, a Martin Brudnizki–designed lobby bar named for cartoonist Gerald Scarfe, whose original political murals line the walls. The bar's drinks programme has been led by Yann Bouvignies since 2017, and The World's 50 Best Bars placed Scarfes inside the global Top 50 every year from 2019 to 2024 — No 27 in 2024 according to the published ranking.
The right visitor wants a hotel bar that does live jazz nightly without losing its drinks programme to the entertainment. The wrong visitor wants quiet, cheap, or a quick stop — the room is a destination, the cocktails are slow, and the cover charge starts at 21:00. The Infatuation London calls it "the best living-room bar in central London."
Two interconnected rooms: a front parlour with leather Chesterfields, the Scarfe murals, and a small stage that hosts the jazz; and a back room with a long bar and lower lighting. Conde Nast Traveller describes the design as "a Wes Anderson set drawn by Hogarth," which captures the maximalist-but-warm tone. The fireplace is real and lit October through March.
Order from the themed seasonal menu — recent editions have ridden the works of T.S. Eliot, the seven deadly sins, and Indian regional spice routes. The signature drink is the Scarfes Old Fashioned (£20), a smoked variant Bouvignies built around an Indian-spice bitters. The Caviar Bump service (£28 for two) is the table add-on. Difford's Guide rates the programme five stars; Class Magazine's UK Top 50 has Scarfes in the top ten every year since 2020.
Skip ordering a martini before the jazz starts — the bartenders are running the live-music shift and the dressier classical pours arrive faster in the back room. The £6 music cover after 21:00 is automatic on Friday and Saturday.
Hotel guests fill the early shift, dropping into the £20-cocktail demographic that hotel-bar pricing selects for. By 21:30 the room shifts toward dressed-up Londoners on dates and journalists from the Bloomsbury and Holborn newsrooms. Conde Nast Traveller places the bar in its "Best Hotel Bars in the World" feature most years.