As London’s streets become living, breathing catwalks, the West End becomes sexier than The Box on a Saturday night and sales of slimline vodka tonics soar. We say it’s the perfect time to rub elbows with the fashion elite, tailgate them into some after party and drink free Champagne every night of the week.
Want in on that action? These are the watering holes to get involved with all that glitters, now you just have to figure out what you’re wearing.
Marks Bar
Hiding under HIX at the base of Brewer Street, slide through their colossal door, and chat your way past their door girl – she may be sweet and smiling, but she runs that door with an iron fist, so play nice. Want to swan in like you own the joint? Grab a bite before at the restaurant or wise up and book.
Downstairs, find yourself at their super-long bar to watch the barmen strut their stuff or get sharing a big ass sofa while you sip away from their vast drinks list.
Experimental Cocktail Club
Peeling black paint showing the previous coat of red underneath hardly looks like a doorway to a multi-storey boozy wonderland, but trust us – you want to be here. Charm past the doorman and head up for some impossibly chic Parisan vibes loaded with blindingly good drinks, loadsa eye candy, and debauchery just begging to come out and play.
This crew has banging bars in in all the best party places (NYC, Paris, Ibiza), so you know this’ll be a night for the books, if you remember it all, that is.
The Edition
If you missed the Studio 54 days, this is the modern, classier playhouse number from co-founder Ian Schrager. Grab a golden bite at the Jason Atherton-run Burners Tavern, feel swank in their Lobby bar (dare someone to a game of snooker), or talk your way into the super intimate Punch Room.
If you’re really feeling daring and want to party past bedtime, sneak into their secret late night hideaway in the basement – it’s invite and membership only, so get yourself dolled up, look like you belong there and get schmoozing.
Cirque Le Soir
Welcome to a land where (almost) anything goes. Leather and lace, fire and latex, sky-high heels, banging beats and a party that boarders on insanity in all the best ways possible. Doll yourself up to the nines and party with all that glitters in this debaucherous den till the wee hours, sharing sweat with billboard faces and household names.
Leave your prude mates at home – their stage shows don’t leave much to the imagination, but will surpass your craziest dreams, even the ones you’d never admit out loud.
Chiltern Firehouse
Combine a super cool chef (Nuno Mendez), a ridiculously successful hotel operator (André Ballads), a Grade II-listed Victorian-gothic fire station then add a bunch of celebs and you have the hottest ticket in town. Eighteen months after its grand opening, the Firehouse is still one of the hardest tables to snag, while the likes of Kendall Jenner, Irina Shaky and Rita Ora nibble crab donuts and sneak off to the semi-secret Basement where things pick up a notch or the even more exclusive Laddershed Club, with its nightly changing set of hand-picked members.
76 Dean Street
By now we’ve realised that anything Soho House Group touches instantly becomes gold. Celebrating their 20th anniversary by opening a massive new soho clubhouse in a Grade II listed building loaded with five bars, huge sitting rooms, courtyard, roof terrace, cinema, and plenty of nooks for chilled A-listers to hide in.
Keeping with their no-suits policy, this place is cool, comfortable and oh so chic. This comes perfectly in time for a much needed facelift on their original site over on Old Compton Street later this year.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.