Bar 190

Bar 190 occupies the ground floor of The Gore, the Victorian townhouse hotel that has stood on Queen's Gate since 1892. The room is panelled in oak from floor to cornice, lit by candelabra and pink-shaded brass sconces, with a bay window onto the street and red velvet and tartan banquettes running the length of one wall. At 90 square metres it is not a large room, and it has kept the clubbable quality that London bars of this age either hold on to or lose in a refurbishment.

The Rolling Stones held the launch party for Beggars Banquet at the hotel in December 1968. Photographs from that night hang framed on the panelling alongside a gold disc, and the bar has traded on the association since without leaning on it too heavily. A relaunch in October 2021 brought an eleven-strong signature list drawn from the building's own history; the opening drink is named for the two sisters, Fanny and Ada Cooke, who founded the hotel in 1892. Behind it sits a long spirits list weighted towards gin and whisky, including a pair of gins and a vodka distilled in London for the bar.

For private events the bar is let exclusively and takes 70 standing. A staircase at the back drops to the hotel's Tapestry Room, so a larger reception can carry on downstairs. It runs to 1am Monday to Saturday, and the Royal Albert Hall is a short walk away.