This month’s Guest Editors, London Cocktail Week founders Hannah Sharman-Cox and Siobhán Payne, ask some quickfire questions
Your fave London cocktail bar for when you want a guaranteed great drink?
Nipperkin – not only does it feel like you’re having a cocktail in your suspiciously wealthy and eccentric aunt’s parlour, but every single drink here is so deftly judged. Their focus on British produce showcases unexpected flavours in classics, the view of the bartenders tempering ice lulls you into a doe-eyed daze, and the people watching would have given Jilly Cooper plentiful material. (RIP Dame J)
Your go-to cocktail order?
I’m predictable AF so it will be a martini, but of the allium variety – the Gibson. London Dry Gin (nothing too complicated botanical-wise, maybe something with a nice nod to the city like Hayman’s), dry vermouth and a good quality silverskin pickled onion. If there’s a bag of pickled onion Monster Munch lying around as a snack too, even better.
The 2026 bar opening you’re most looking forward to?
The Waldorf Astoria Admiralty Arch is finally about to open, and word has it there will be a bar with a bottle of whisky from every distillery in the UK. Challenge accepted.
What’s In? Being silly, a spontaneous solo cocktail, going to the pub, celebrating the small things with pals, wearing the too short skirt.
What’s Out? Staying in, ‘mocktails’, flashy luxury, shit bar snacks, queuing, being a dick to staff.
Hannah Sharman-Cox and Siobhán Payne are this month’s Guest Editors and you can see all the content they’ve curated here.
