Gambit Bar

Gambit Bar sits one floor below the pavement on Newman Street, reached through a mirrored vestibule of arched doorways and a patterned floor that gives nothing away about what follows. The room itself is low, warm and deliberately theatrical: a burr-topped bar counter running the length of one wall, alabaster ceiling discs washing the vaulted plaster in amber, olive velvet stools and a chevron-tiled floor. It is the drinking room of The Newman, the Fitzrovia hotel directly above it, and it trades on its own name and its own front door.

Music is not an afterthought here. The bar publishes a programme rather than a playlist: resident DJs and a house band play Thursday through Saturday, guest artists appear through the season, and Tuesday and Wednesday run on a curated soundtrack. The Gambit Sessions bring live musicians into the room for evening sets of jazz reinterpretations. Doors are Tuesday to Saturday, five until midnight.

For private events the bar takes about a hundred standing or fifty seated across the whole floor, and there is a semi-private alcove, The Stage, screened behind an arched glazed partition and set with a curved banquette, low tables and a shell-drop chandelier of its own. It suits sixteen. Menus come from Brasserie Angelica, the brasserie at street level, and the events team arranges partial or full private hire.