Soho speakeasy bars, and how to find ours.

Soho has more hidden bars per square mile than anywhere else in London, and nobody planned it that way. This neighbourhood has always run on rooms you had to know about: the drinking dens of the fifties, members' rooms above shops, jazz cellars operating on a nod. The modern speakeasy is a new coat of paint on a very old habit.

Where the word comes from

The term is American. During Prohibition you spoke quietly, "easy", about the places that still served, and the name outlived the law by a century. London never had Prohibition, so our version was never about necessity. It's theatre. When Milk & Honey opened on Poland Street in 2002, with its membership cards and house rules about not shouting, it set the tone for twenty years of London bars hiding on purpose. It's gone now, but half the cocktail rooms in Soho still carry its DNA.

How to tell a real one from a theme night

A fake bookcase does not make a speakeasy. The test is simpler: would you walk past it if you didn't know? Once you're inside, does the room justify the hunt? A hidden entrance buys a bar about ninety seconds of goodwill, and after that the drinks have to be the point. The good ones understand this. The gimmicky ones hand you a laminated menu of vodka and dry ice and hope the door did the work.

The other tell is noise. A proper hidden bar is quieter than street level, that's half the reason it exists. If you have to shout, you've found a basement, not a speakeasy.

Ours is behind a red door

Basement Sate is at 8 Broadwick Street, and from the pavement there's almost nothing to see. A red door, a small landing, stairs going down. People stand outside checking their phones, convinced the map is wrong. The map is not wrong.

At the bottom: a low-lit room of leather chesterfields and brick alcoves, a bar that takes its cocktails seriously, and desserts served until late, which is rarer than it should be. The full picture is on our Soho speakeasy page, and the practical directions are on find us. If you want the room quiet, the quiet bar in Soho page explains which nights are which.

Doing a hidden-bar night properly

Book ahead rather than wander. The romance of stumbling across a secret door dies quickly when the doorman tells you it's full until Thursday. Start earlier than you think, hidden rooms are at their best around seven, before the tables fill. Two drinks per stop, then move. And finish somewhere that does dessert, because at midnight in Soho that narrows the field considerably, and we know exactly where you'll end up.

Book a table and skip the guesswork entirely.