SHAKE, RATTLE AND ROLL UP FOR DRINKS
To celebrate the most sophisticated drink, sip your favourite concoction at hundreds of locations across the capital during Cocktail Week. Emma Henderson takes the tour
Get your shakers, mixers and your best glassware at the ready, as we’re about to welcome in the most glamorous and booziest seven days of the calendar, London Cocktail Week. Now in its seventh year, running from 3-9 October, the event has two main hubs – the Cocktail Village, in Old Spitalfields Market, and The World Class House in Piccadilly, where you can indulge in the best of the most sophisticated drink, whether it’s shaken, stirred or poured. Partnering with 200 bars across the capital, from Bethnal
Green to Battersea, cocktails will be £5 with a LCW wristband (bought online or on the door for £10). Then, head to your favourite area of the city or the main hubs for a bumper tasting session.
The village is home to a heady mix of bespoke bars, the most knowledgeable bar-tenders from around the world, master classes and with a whopping 39 popups, you’ll have to choose your selection wisely. Patron’s Cocktail Lab has seven acclaimed bartenders from around the world who will devise carefully curated cocktails inspired by their home city. The Winking Pig's Britvic drinking den’s cocktails will use the best of British while the House of Peroni Presents Amare L’Italia offers Italian heritage spirits, mixing them with beer and the country’s local ingredients, which is set to become an emerging trend in the drinks world. The village is open until 9.30pm every night apart from Sunday when it closes at 7.30pm
Outside of the village, The Hoxton Hall will be hosting two jazz events on Thursday and Friday from 7pm until midnight, including music from Brazilian jazz-funk trio Azymuth in associating with Drambuie’s Brass & Crimson, celebrating the drink’s popularisation during the roaring jazz age.
The World Class House offers a multi-story experience across five floors. On the ground floor, immerse yourself in the history of the cocktail, where the Retro Bar and the Future Bar offer eight cocktails document the drink’s story from the past to today created by World Class UK Bartender winners.
And some of the capital’s best bars are involved too, with Mr Fogg’s serving up its Tavern Punch gin cocktail, and the Rooftop Radio Bar’s La Dolce Vita. With 12 venues in Mayfair, 24 in Soho, 16 in Covent Garden and 12 in Fitzrovia, it’s a chance to explore some of central London’s best tipples for less than half the price and some offer nibbles with drinks for an extra £5.
With an overwhelming amount of gin cocktails available across the city, thanks to the juniper based spirit
fast becoming our favourite spirit, tea and gin lovers should head to The Lightherman in King’s Cross Granary Square from the Bombay Tea Party – a mix of early grey, Bombay gin, lemon juice and Moni hibiscus syrup. Or take yourself to the East London Liquour Company distillery to try the Bramble Sky Diver, made with their own gin with notes of Darjeeling tea, pink grapefruit and cassia bark.
For more information and to buy wristbands, visit drinkup.london.co.uk