Down Is the New Up: Why London's Best Nights Are Below Street Level

London has spent years looking up. Every new opening seems to come with a rooftop, a skyline and a queue of people photographing the Shard instead of each other. I understand the appeal. A view is easy. But the best nights I have had in this city recently have been downstairs, in basements where the phone signal dies and the city turns into a rumour. London doesn't need another rooftop. It needs more rooms that make you forget the skyline.

The case for going down

A basement cannot cheat. It has no view, no sunset, no skyline to lean on. It has to be a room: low ceilings, good lighting, a bar that knows what it is doing, and enough people to make it hum. That constraint is a gift. Rooftops are for occasions. Basements are for nights.

They are also weather-proof, which in London is not a small thing. They are darker, which makes conversation easier and self-consciousness lower. And they are oddly democratic: once you are down the stairs, everyone is in the same windowless boat.

Charing Cross: Gordon's Wine Bar

Start with the original. Gordon's Wine Bar on Villiers Street is a cellar in the most literal sense: vaulted, candlelit, damp in a way that feels historical rather than hazardous. It gets packed, the service can be brisk, and the cheese board is not a Michelin exercise. None of that matters. What Gordon's gets right is atmosphere over theatre. You descend, you find a corner, you drink sherry or something robust and red, and the Embankment outside becomes a different city. Go early or late. The middle of a Friday is a scrum.

Soho: Cahoots and the pleasure of the ridiculous

Cahoots, in Kingly Court, is a 1940s underground station-themed bar, which sounds like a bad idea and is somehow a good one. It is a basement as stage set: sandbags, wartime signage, cocktails with names that wink. What it gets right is commitment. A theme bar fails when it apologises for itself; Cahoots does not. You go for a night with a narrative, not a quiet pint. Nearby, Milroy's of Soho has a downstairs whisky bar for when you want the basement to be serious instead.

Old Street and Shoreditch: Nightjar and Black Rock

Nightjar on City Road is the basement bar as listening room. Low light, live jazz, cocktails that take their time. The room is small enough that the music has nowhere to go but into your chest. Black Rock in Shoreditch takes the basement idea further with a downstairs space that feels like a bunker for people who take spirits seriously. What both get right is sound and service. You are not there to look out. You are there to listen, talk and drink properly.

Smithfield: Oriole

Oriole is below street level in Smithfield, and it behaves like a destination without a view. The cocktails travel, the room is dark and plush, and there is live music that does not ask for your full attention. It gets the balance right: a basement can be theatrical without turning into a theme park. Oriole feels like a secret that has been polished, not a secret that has been sold.

Spitalfields: Discount Suit Company

The Discount Suit Company on Petticoat Lane is the kind of basement that makes you check the address twice. The entrance is easy to miss, the stairs are narrow, and the reward is a small, wood-panelled bar with good drinks and no fuss. What it gets right is restraint. There is no gimmick beyond the hidden-door feeling, and that is enough. The walk down is part of the palate cleanser.

Hoxton: Happiness Forgets

Happiness Forgets on Hoxton Square is a basement bar that has been doing the no-view, no-nonsense thing for years. It is small, it is busy, and the cocktails are better than they need to be. What it gets right is proportion. You do not go there for a view or a scene. You go for a couple of hours that feel deliberately removed from the street.

Notting Hill: Trailer Happiness

Trailer Happiness on Portobello Road is a lower-ground-floor tiki bar that behaves like a house party with a rum problem. It is not trying to be a skyline. It is trying to be fun. What it gets right is generosity: strong drinks, loud conversation, a room that does not take itself too seriously. After a day of west London seriousness, it is a relief.

The basement rules

A good basement night needs a little planning. Book ahead for the small rooms. Check the stairs if anyone in your group has mobility issues; many of these places are old cellars, not accessible lifts. Eat before you go, because a cocktail menu is not dinner. And do not wear a coat you cannot fold. The basement is not a place for a grand entrance. It is a place for the second half of the evening.

Down, not up

London will keep building rooftops. Fine. Let them have the skyline. The city's real personality is underneath, in cellars where the ceilings are low and the drinks are good and nobody is photographing the Shard. The best London nights are often the ones you have to descend to find.