Our favourite 10 Old Street bars

With a door at street level, 5 Ravey Street is a basement cocktail lounge called Found. Many cocktail bars only attempt the level of intimacy Found effortlessly achieves.

Bar stools align the wooden bar at the base of the stairs, and the small adjoining rooms off the central bar, with their low ceilings and candle-lit wooden tables create a den of nooks and crannies.

Found keep things simple and unpretentious with good music and atmosphere, drawing you into their banter behind the bar. They want to know the flavours you like so they can craft damn good cocktails for you. It’s no wonder the folk here are regulars.

Everything about Tayēr + Elementary is nuanced. The outside is nondescript. Inside, the decor is sleek and industrial. The presentation of the cocktails is minimalist. But, take the first sip, and you will realise the drinks are a masterclass in cocktail-crafting.

There are two aspects of this Old Street bar. Elementary is a minimalist bar offering cocktails on tap. Separated only by a wall, Tayēr features an elegant, green ceramic tile and wood-furnished bar focused on high-quality and unique ingredients.

We recommend many of Tayēr + Elementary’s offerings, but especially recommend the One Sip Martini served with a blue cheese olive, the Penicillin, and the Cherry Whisky Sour. And lean into feeling swish by ordering a plate of oysters – they do really good oysters.

A 10-minute walk up Old Street, under the signage of a 1980s bag and shoe shop, you’ll find Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes (we know it’s a mouthful). The bar-venue-cum-gallery has been a Shoreditch fixture for over two decades.

On the other side of its shop front windows is the ground floor bar and exhibition space where you can pair your drinks with several Taco Collective street tacos. In the basement, you find the venue space where they host gigs and DJs – it gets rowdy, and we like it.

So, whether you're into contemporary art, enjoy a good drink in a unique setting, or are just really into your street tacos, Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes (say that five times fast when you’re drunk) is our pick for the Old Street bar with the most character.

Why are jazz bars always in a basement? We don’t know, either. But I have three more words for you: cocktails, absinthe, jazz. They may be a dime a dozen, but we can say this for Nightjar – it does basement jazz and blues bar well.

The cocktail menu reads like a history book divided into four distinct eras: Pre-Prohibition, Prohibition, Post-War, and Nightjar Signature cocktails. Take your pick. Have a few. This Old Steet bar is conveniently close to the station when you decide you’ve had one too many.

And if you’re into absinthe (like we are), Nightjar boasts one of the largest collections in the UK. They offer a traditional fountain serve (which we recommend), or you can enjoy cocktails where absinthe is the star. A word of the wise: make a booking.

Just around the corner from Old Street station, right next door to its sister bar, Found, Home Bar is as unpretentious as it gets; that's probably why it’s named Home. It's the kind of place where you will be on a first-name basis with the bartender by the end of the night.

Home Bar is a simple square room with a bar along the left-hand wall. There are a few stools at the bar, but most folks stand and take their drinks outside onto Ravey Street. There may just be more bottles of booze in the place than people.

Regulars crowd in, order cocktails and take shots with their favourite bartender – one shot glass of tequila immediately followed by another filled with a zesty lime and coriander concoction. We like Home Bar – it says a lot about a place when a cocktail bar in the middle of a city has regulars.

The Prince Arthur pub is a 5-minute stroll from Old Street station, hidden away on a backstreet in busy Shoreditch and frequented by the locals. Most of these Old Street bars have been just that: bars, so when we recommend a pub, it’s with good reason.

It’s a modest pub; the original frontage is understated, and inside, the wooden floors and tables, the warped glass in the windows, and the brick fireplaces all have that cosyness of traditional pubs we like so much.

The Prince Arthur is worth a visit whether you’re popping in for a pint and a game of darts with pals, or to check out live music, or to book for an event or party – you get your own space with a private balcony with views of Shoreditch. All in all, it’s a good spot.

our pick for late afternoon cocktails. And pre-dinner cocktails. And nightcaps. What we’re trying to say is Swift Shoreditch is a favourite.

It’s on the small side, with high bar tables, stools, and booth-style seating along the walls. Like its other Bar Swift companions, the space is dominated by white marble, mirrors, and an L-shaped bar serving cocktails, wine, and beers.

We like this Old Street bar for offering an Aperitivo Hour until 6pm, Monday to Friday – ideal for those early finish days if you work in the area. We recommend the Taverna & Tonic. But let’s not forget Swift is a cocktail bar; our recommendations: the Burnside and the Sgroppino.

Apothecary East is on our list for a couple of reasons: handcrafted cocktails, Japanese whisky, sake, beers, and Japanese-style small plates and bar snacks. Did we mention they serve sake? Note: chilled sake to be sipped like white wine.

The space is open – a great spot for an event – with elegant touches of natural elements like wood, stone, and lush green plants. We especially approve of the atmosphere with their specially curated playlists by music masters Spiritland, and DJ sessions.

Don't miss out on pairing the flavours of the small plates with your cocktails, beer, and sake. We recommend the Found in Translation cocktail – a clever concoction of sake and apricot oolong tea and an equally clever name (if you know, you know).

Just a stone's throw away from Old Street station, The Griffin is a traditional British pub with long windowed-doors that conveniently open onto Ravey Street directly across from cocktail bars Found and Home Bar. Three birds with one stone? Start at the Griffin.

The Griffin is a spacious pub dominated by a vintage bar running the length of the place. With all that space, there’s still a beer-toting crowd outside during the after-work hours mid-week.

It’s a craft beer pub with regular tap takeovers and Beer Flight Sundays. We like the beer, we like the atmosphere, and we like that it’s just as full of regulars at the weekends as it is during the week.

We reckon you have to go to Old Street Records when you’re in Old Street. We like the exposed brick walls, retro furnishings, a wall of vinyl records, and neon accents. So, grab a seat, a cocktail, and maybe grab a pizza, or do what you came here to do: dance.

Old Street Records is dedicated to live music and DJ nights; there’s something different every night, from Motown to Funk to House. Some nights, the vinyl gets exchanged for a live band. The commitment to music is real.

The bar is spacious enough that it’s a great place to book a party, but equally good when you’re on a night out with pals and – although you “never dance” – the drinks have kicked in, and now you have an overpowering urge to dance. Yeah, this bar is good for that.