Editorial
The best bars for a Sunday afternoon in London are not the loudest or the most Instagrammable. They are the places that have figured out the particular rhythm of a Sunday — slower, more deliberate, and rewarding if you let the afternoon stretch. We have been through every corner of the city to find the bars that do Sunday properly: good natural light, food worth eating alongside the drinks, and a staff that does not make you feel like you should wrap up and leave.
East London owns the Sunday afternoon format. From Hackney to Dalston to Bethnal Green, the combination of late-opening pubs, strong coffee-to-cocktail transitions, and neighbourhood energy makes this the best part of the city for a Sunday session that starts at noon and finishes when it finishes.
Central London can be difficult on Sundays — the tourist traffic, the early last orders in some areas, and the sense that many venues are just going through the motions until Monday. The picks below are the exceptions: places that treat Sunday as an opportunity rather than an obligation.
Not every Sunday calls for a pub. For the Sundays that start later and run on cocktails rather than pints, these are the bars that have the right programme and the right attitude for a longer, quieter afternoon session.
The best Sunday afternoon bars in London reward patience. The city's Sunday drinking culture is at its best when you find a venue that has the right food, the right drinks, and the right amount of space to let an afternoon unfold without pressure. The picks above all have that quality — and they are spread across enough of the city that wherever you are on a Sunday, at least two of them are within reasonable distance.
Arrive early for outdoor venues — the best terraces in London fill by early afternoon on good weather days. For pub-format venues, Sunday afternoons are actually best from 2pm to 5pm, when the post-roast crowd has settled in and the evening crowd has not yet arrived. That two-to-three hour window is the best version of a London Sunday afternoon bar.
Sofia has spent a significant portion of the last decade in London's Sunday afternoon bars. She has strong opinions about which East London terraces are worth the effort in variable weather and which central London hotel bars get the Sunday pace right.