The latest venture from the founders of WC (which is actually directly below) and the much-loved Brickwood cafés serves up Californian-style pizzas from a pocket-sized building adjacent to Clapham Common station. And what makes a pizza Californian-style, you ask? More toppings and a sourdough base apparently, and when the results include combinations like olive tapenade, artichoke, mushrooms and ham hock; pesto, feta, sweet potato, spinach, pine nut and beetroot; and sweet potato, lamb shank, purple potato and feta we aren't complaining. Grab them by the slice or test your stomach's limits with a 20" pie. It opens early doors, too, serving bacon and sausage butties and Caravan coffees to take away from 6.30am. Whether you're on your way to work or en route home, we can predict it won't be long before you'll find yourself propping up the bar here.
It took two years to turn this pocket-sized Victorian toilet into a cosy coffee shop. The space has been loo-vingly decorated (see what we did there?), keeping the original porcelain urinals which line the walls as a quirky design feature. It also serves up delicious food, with a tiny kitchen creating dishes based on what comes back from its nightly picker at New Covent Garden Market – but we can't see past the vanilla-dipped french toast.
Cabaret, burlesque, drag queens, snuff parties...it's a wonder that Cellar Door manages to fit its 60 covers into a former loo, but it leverages a clever layout to do so with panache. You might need Dutch courage to use the toilets though, which have glass doors that cloud over when locked. Reportedly a favourite haunt of Oscar Wilde, it's secreted away outside the Lyceum theatre.
Can a public toilet ever be exclusive? Well, this one is – it's a members-only bar from art school graduate George Garnier, hosting regular 'creative industry' nights. The décor is 1920s art deco, with table tops made from the (thoroughly cleaned) stone walls that originally separated the toilets. The cocktail list is equally retro-inspired, with mixers made using ingredients purchased at Borough Market, and what we've heard is a damned good negroni.
A bar in a disused underground Victorian loo, Ladies & Gents has become a local favourite in NW5. Founded by proud Kentish Town-er and owner of Vestal Vodka William Borrell, its seasonal menu is based on ingredients grown on Hampstead Heath allotments and cocktail syrups made using Kentish Town Honey. To top it off, the bar will soon have its own 16-litre copper still for creating bespoke spirits, including L&G's Highwayman Gin.
WC, fittingly, stands for two of our favourite things: wine and charcuterie. This dinky venue is located underneath Clapham Common station, complete with cured meats hanging above the bar and a diverse wine list replete with Old and New World wines, but if that doesn't take your fancy (in which case, you must be unhinged), they also have a well-rounded cocktail list and shedloads of London craft beers (natch). The menu is created very much with sharing in mind, so get yourself and a group of mates down there and order the rather posh-sounding rabbit and Armagnac salami by the bucketload.
