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Dove Freehouse
This pub attracts at any time with its rambling series of rooms and wide range of Belgian Trappist and wheat beers. But there's something about the dim back room, with its ethnic bohemian chic, that makes this pub a great place to hunker down against the chill. Of course, everyone feels the same way so don't count on solitude.
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Downstairs at the King's Head
A club hailing from the 1980s, with success stories of starting Eddie Izzard and Mark Lamarr's careers in its busy, smoky and intimate room. It hosts newbies and biggies in equal proportions.
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Dragon Bar
Dragon's been super cool since it opened in the mid-1990s, and has maintained its style thanks to the fact that it's easy to miss: the name is hardly visible and only embossed on an entrance stair. Inside, it's all exposed brick, Chinese lanterns, velvet curtains and one of those illuminated waterfall pictures you buy on Brick Lane - it's ironic, of course.
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Dreambagsjaguarshoes
The bar's name is a lazy leftover from the names of the two shop spaces it now occupies, and this nonchalance is a typical example of the we-couldn't-care-less Shoreditch chic. Inside, the small space is filled with sofas and Formica-topped tables, the walls covered in drawings and graffiti, a DJ plays in the corner, lads wear the nu rave look and the gals are sleek-looking.
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Dublin Castle
A great place to catch indie bands trying their acts and hoping they'll make it as big as Madness (which launched its career here). It's also great for catching people like Blur and Amy Winehouse for an intimate gig.
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Dusk
This rather remote stretch of Battersea Park Rd seems a truly unusual location for this glamorous, recently refurbished (and award-winning) bar but it's worth the trek. Staff make killer cocktails and there's a DJ (and sometimes live music) at the weekend.
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Dysart Arms
This wonderful, almost church-like place with stone walls and open fire is a great family pub facing Richmond Park's Petersham entrance. It succeeds on all fronts: families are made to feel welcome, the food is very good, and the large terrace is packed on a warm afternoon. Best of all there are musical evenings - jazz and classical - twice a week (usually Thursday and Saturday).
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Earl of Lonsdale
We love this place, especially after schlepping around the market all morning. Despite its being bang in the middle of the market, the Earl is peaceful during the day, with a mixture of old biddies and young hipsters who seem to cohabit happily as they munch the so-so fish and chips and burgers and sit in the private booths surrounding the bar. There are Samuel Smith ales, and a fantastic back saloon with huge leather armchairs to sink into.
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Earl's Court Exhibition Centre
The kind of large, soulless venue that gave stadium rock its bad name, Earl's Court was where Justin Timberlake was famously photographed pawing Kylie Minogue's bum and where most of the gigs you'll see will be by massively expensive, high-flying stars, whose faces will be a dot in the distance and whose songs will echo in the sky. You'll see artists such as Kaiser Chiefs and U2 here.
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Edge
Overlooking Soho Sq in all its four-storey glory, the Edge is London's largest gay bar and heaves from the early evening until the early hours with preclubbing revellers fuelling up for the night ahead. There's a heavy straight presence though, as it's so close to Oxford St, but it's still a fun place to start the evening.
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Edinboro Castle
This beautifully attired, relaxed and welcoming pub has more of a Primrose Hill atmosphere than that of a Camden boozer. It boasts a full menu, gorgeous furniture designed for slumping, and a huge outdoor seating area that is perfect for summer evenings.
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Egg
Egg has the most superb layout with three exposed concrete rooms (across three floors), a garden and two gorgeous tropical roof terraces (relieving the edgy, exiled smokers). Located off York Way, the club hosts 'omnisexual' nights, with a mix of electro, minimal and house. At weekends, a free shuttle bus runs from outside American Carwash on York Way to the venue between and every 30 minutes.
Some say Egg would fit perfectly in New York's meat-packing district, but we're keeping it.
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El Vino
A venerable institution that plays host to barristers, solicitors and other legal types from the Royal Courts of Justice across the way, this wine bar (one of five in a small chain) has one of the better wine lists in the City and prices at the attached shops are reasonable. El Vino 'appeared' as the wine bar Pomeroys in the TV series Rumpole of the Bailey .
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Elbow Room
Don't be fooled by the row upon row of pool tables - this place is packed on the weekends with punters just as interested in the cocktails, beer, bar food and DJs. It's relaxed, unposey and reckoned by many to be a top place to meet members of the opposite sex. Entry on Saturday costs about £5 .
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Electric Cinema
If you've got a date who's hard to impress, head here for certain success. This is the UK's oldest cinema, updated with luxurious leather armchairs, footstools, tables for food and drink in the auditorium, and an upmarket brasserie. Seeing a flick at this Edwardian building is, of course, slightly pricier than elsewhere; on full-price nights the seats are around £13 , or around £31 for a two-seater sofa. One of the most lavish venues in town.
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Elk in the Woods
A wonderful take on a stylish countryside hunters' pub, this is by far the coolest bar in Islington and equally notable for its food. With its large, rough oak-wood tables, old mirrors, stuffed deer head and wonderfully friendly staff, this is a spot to savour.
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Embassy
It's been around for years, but Embassy's reputation and appeal just keep rising, so get there early on weekends and mingle with the cool music and media crowd and enjoy the good DJs. The darkened windows and black walls make it look secretive, but inside everyone's relaxing on the ubiquitous comfy sofas on the ground and basement floors. There's a cover charge (around £3 ) on weekends.
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End
The End is a glam club with minimalist industrial décor and a reputation for some of the city's best all-nighters. It's situated in a West End backstreet, close to its sister-bar AKA. Fridays and Saturdays are devoted to guest DJs, Wednesday's Swerve with Fabio is mega-popular, and the rest of the week includes Sunday's alternating electro tech house Superfreq and glam Clandestino.
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English National Opera
The ENO's new music director, Edward Gardner, is promising better years ahead, and God knows they need better years. Generally renowned for making opera modern and relevant, the ENO has been suffering a miserable few years of bad reviews, financial difficulties and media flak (not helped by Gaddafi: The Opera in 2006). Five hundred around £10 -and-under tickets are available for all weekday performances. All opera at the ENO is sung in English.
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Everyman Hampstead
Ever dream of having your own private cinema? For the next best thing, go to the Everyman. The two auditoriums have comfy armchairs and sofas where you can sprawl out and watch a film with your cup of tea or glass of wine. The programme has a wide range of films, from current blockbusters to Singing in the Rain or The Godfather .
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Fabric
This superclub is still the first stop on the London scene for many international clubbers. A smoky warren of three floors, three bars, many walkways and unisex toilets, it has a kidney-shaking 'sonic boom' dance floor. The crowd is hip and well-dressed without overkill, and the music - mainly electro, house, drum 'n' bass and breakbeat - is as superb as you'd expect from London's top-rated club. Queues are worst from about - .
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Favela Chic
Smaller sister of the original Paris club, this place profits from 'slum chic' just like the producers of Havaiana flip-flops did. It's a one-room bar/club with permanently long queues on Fridays and Saturdays and innovative music nights. The décor is very much about the vintage, distressed and flea-market pieces, though self-consciously so, but if you can endure the long wait and get past the high'n'mighty door whores, you'll have a good night.
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Fiesta Havana
The epitome of a cheesy night out, you'll have to be up for it (in every sense) to enjoy yourself at Fiesta Havana, a neonlike turquoise-and-mustard 'little bit of Cuba' that you couldn't miss even if you did blink. The music (groovy Latin beats) is great, happens almost nightly and there are free dance classes at the beginning of the evening.
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Fire
Sealing Vauxhall's reputation as the new gay nightlife centre of London, Fire is another expansive, smart space under the railway arches, hosting the infamous Rude Boyz for gay chavs and their admirers on Thursday nights, as well as centrepiece of the Vauxhall weekend A:M on Fridays, and Sunday all-nighter Orange.
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Floridita
This slick, glamorous, mirrored basement bar-restaurant should echo the Havana original, but it's a little more Terence Conran (the restaurateur backer) than Cuban and we're not sure Ernest Hemingway would have approved. Still, plenty of others do, arriving for the live Latin bands (always good), food (good, but not great value) and cocktails (variable). There's often an around £6 cover charge.
