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Battersea Arts Centre
This is a friendly, down-to-earth community theatre where staff chat to you and the actors mingle in the bar with the audience post-show. Playwrights see it as a valuable nurturer and crucible of new plays and talent. Artistic director David Jubb's infamous Scratch programme is an excellent exercise in learning about the writing process: a developing play is shown to increasing audiences until it's finished.
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Bedroom Bar
A great place for a cheap post-pub night of dancing, Bedroom Bar has good cocktails, banquettes to lounge on, and enough floor space for dancing to the DJ's tunes.
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Bethnal Green Working Men's Club
This is a true rags-to-riches story: BGWMC was on the brink of bankruptcy, its working men about to become destitute and pintless, until a clever promoter spread the news of trashy burlesque nights taking place in the club's main hall. Whoopee, London's top burlesque bonanza people host regular nights, in addition to tassel-twirling contests, alternative Eurovision nights and other sweet selections. Check the website for what's on.
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BFI Imax Cinema
The renamed British Film Institute IMAX Cinema in the centre of a busy roundabout screens the predictable mix of 2-D and IMAX 3-D documentaries about travel, space and wildlife, lasting from 40 minutes to 1½ hours, as well as recently released blockbusters. The drum-shaped building sits on 'springs' to reduce vibrations and traffic noise from the traffic circle and subways below and the exterior changes colour at night.
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Big Chill House
Want to celebrate the spirit of the Big Chill festival all year round? Well, head out to King's Cross and party at this huge bar, where the owners' idea is to give Londoners a place to feel free and festive by naming parts of the 'House' after the eponymous festival's different musical areas and hosting lots of live and exciting music nights. Sister to the popular Big Chill bar (7392 9180; Dray Walk E1) off Brick Lane.
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Bistrotheque
The lovely Bistrotheque offers three things: fine dining in its stylish white restaurant; partying and cabaret in the Cabaret Room; and drinking in the Napoleon Bar, a moody, slightly decadent room with dark walls and plush seating. The drinks are expertly mixed and the bar staff always friendly. You might see the Puppini Sisters singing, the likes of Stephen Bayley giving talks and a bit of gay bingo (though not all on the same night).
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Black Cap
This friendly, sprawling place is Camden's premier gay venue and attracts people from all over North London to its great terrace and downstairs club, where you'll find plenty of hilarious camp cabaret as well as decent dance music.
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Black Friar
It may look like Friar Tuck just stepped out of this 'olde pubbe' just north of Blackfriars tube station, but the interior is actually an Arts & Crafts makeover dating to 1905. Not surprisingly, the Black Friar is the preserve of City suits during the week, but they disappear at the weekend, leaving it to the rest of us. There's a good selection of ales and bitters here.
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Blind Beggar
Notorious as the place where Ronnie Kray shot George Cornell in 1966 in a gang war over control of the East End's organised crime, the Blind Beggar has had a makeover in recent years and looks like just about any other boozer along this stretch of the East End's main thoroughfare. But its historical associations (not to mention garden with benches) continues to draw visitors and locals alike.
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Bollo
Out of the way even by Chiswick's standards, this backstreet gastropub has been a huge success, run by local restaurateurs who redeveloped it from a simple local. It's best at the weekend when it is at its busiest, catering to a well-heeled, older crowd looking for a pub and diningroom rolled into one.
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Boogaloo
'London's Number 1 Jukebox' is how Boogaloo flaunts itself and how it's been described in the local media, thanks to its celebrity-musician-fiddled-with jukebox playlists, featuring the favourite 10 songs of the likes of Nick Cave, Sinead O'Connor, Howie B and Bobbie Gillespie, to name but a random few. There's plenty to boogie to with the live music on every night of the week. If you're into music in a big way, it's worth going out to Archway.
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Bradley's Spanish Bar
Hanway St is home to several tapas-and-flamenco bars and speakeasy Spanish bars open until dawn and serving beer from crates. Bradley's is vaguely Spanish in décor, though it's very Spanish in its choice of booze: San Miguel, Cruzcampo and some decent wines. The punters are squeezed under low ceilings in the nooks of the basement, while a vintage vinyl jukebox plays out rock tunes of your choice.
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Bricklayers Arms
A determinedly down-to-earth stalwart of the Hoxton scene, the Bricklayers Arms attracts an unpretentious but cool-looking, generally mid-to-late-20s crowd. This essentially old-style pub is often seen as a solid place to start the evening, before heading off elsewhere.
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Brixton Academy
Not everyone will get to Brixton, one of London's edgy but brilliant multicultural districts, but if you're heading south on the Victoria Line, one of the highlights is Brixton Academy, a scuzzy but lovely former theatre, with good sight lines and a great range of gigs for a 4000-strong crowd.
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Brixton Bar & Grill
This stylish bar under the railway arches is a superb choice for 'slinky' (their word) cocktails and listening to live music. It also has an interesting menu of small and large 'plates' as well as tapas.
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Bull & Gate
The best place to see unsigned-but-promising talent, the legendary Bull & Gate's old-skool, smoky music venue still pulls in the punters eager to see guitar bands that might just turn out to be the next big thing.
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Bush Theatre
For what is essentially a pub theatre, the Bush is exceptionally good and encourages new writing. Its success is down to strong writing from the likes of Tina Brown, Jonathan Harvey, Conor McPherson and Stephen Poliakoff. It also attracts top actors.
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Cafe Kick
A bare-boards bar with a Continental European feel, where the action centres around the handful of 'fussball' tables.
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Candy Bar
This is the hottest lesbian bar in town, a great, friendly place, with a long bar on the ground floor and a miniclub in the basement where DJs play most nights. Look out for karaoke every Tuesday, which is a blast. Men are admitted as guests to women (one man allowed per woman).
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Captain Kidd
The Kidd, with its large windows, fine (but small) beer garden and mock scaffold recalling the hanging nearby of the eponymous pirate in 1701, is a favourite riverside pub in Wapping.
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Cargo
Cargo is really one of a kind on London's club scene. It doesn't go for the obvious, but chooses international music, live bands and brilliant DJs, all of which you can enjoy while eating great 'street food' and sipping cocktails or massive bottles of beer. It's the sort of place where you can feel cosy or go crazy, and a club that comes closest to feeling like your 'local', complete with a great dance floor, sofas and a courtyard with a hammock.
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Carling Academy Brixton
It's hard to have a bad night at the Brixton Academy, even if you leave with your soles sticky with beer, as this cavernous former theatre (holding 5000) always thrums with bonhomie. There's a properly sloping floor for good views, as well as plenty of bars. You can catch international acts of the ilk of Madonna (once), but more likely artists are Amy Winehouse, Basement Jaxx or DJ Shadow.
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Carling Academy Islington
Many complain about Islington Academy's lack of atmosphere - it is, after all, set in a shopping centre - but all agree that the artists' line-up is pretty top class: Franz Ferdinand, Kings of Leon, and even Tom Jones have played here. The acoustics are excellent and the discerning crowd is serious about their music. The adjacent Bar Academy hosts up-and-coming groups and can be a great place to see new talent.
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Castle
The Castle gets lively on Saturdays, when the market crowds pour in to rest their feet on the comfortable armchairs and sofas and enjoy the odd décor of industrial meets Moorish charm. There's Leffe and delicious strawberry beer, and the place is mainly populated by a crowd of local characters who keep it buzzing all day long. There's a full menu and live jazz on Saturday and Sunday evenings.
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Cat & Mutton
As if to seal the deal on East London's most up-and-coming eating and drinking strip, the once terrifyingly rowdy pub on the edge of London Fields (the 'Cat' is short for 'cattle' that grazed here before being slaughtered) has metamorphosed into an airy and well-run gastropub. It has mostly lagers on tap but offers a full wine list and modern European menu.
