Sweetings

Sweetings has kept the same corner of the City since 1889, on the ground floor of the Grade II-listed Albert Buildings where Queen Victoria Street meets Cannon Street. It is one of the last surviving Victorian fish and oyster rooms in London: mahogany counters worn smooth by a century of elbows, blue leather stools, a mosaic floor, and walls hung close with Spy prints, sporting photographs and framed menus. Diners perch at the long counters rather than book tables, and the kitchen still turns out potted shrimps, Dover sole, fish pie and the house Black Velvet much as it always has.

Through the working week the restaurant serves weekday lunch only and takes no reservations, which is part of its character and part of its scarcity. The rooms come into their own after hours: in the evenings and at weekends the whole place is available for private hire, an exclusive-use buyout of a genuinely historic City interior that sits empty the rest of the time. It suits a seated dinner, a City celebration or a reception where the setting does the work.

The space is intimate and low-lit once the counters are cleared, with the bar and the panelled dining nooks giving a private party the run of a room that most Londoners only ever see at noon. Private functions are arranged directly with the restaurant.