The deepest bar in the UK is currently being built in London - and it’s going to be in a secret WWII bunker

How low can you go?

Hermione Blandford's avatar
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an AI rendering / artist's rendering of the bar
(Image credit: The London Tunnels)

London has a plethora of fantastic bars and pubs, with all sorts of gimmicks – a restaurant in a tube carriage, a bar with a mini-lift-for-your-drink. The latest spot to be taking up residence in central is going a little deeper, literally.

As well as all the history littering London’s ground-level streets, there’s even more buried underneath. Usually off limits to anyone not donning a degree in archaeology from Oxbridge or a TFL staff pass, a secret labyrinth of underground tunnels are going to open for the first time in 70 years.

The tunnels themselves are the former Kingsway Exchange Tunnels, a mile-long network of underground passageways lying almost 100-feet beneath London. Originally, they were created as a deep-level air raid shelter for Londoners during The Blitz and were also used as Special Operations bunkers toward the end of WWII. Think Operation Mincemeat vibes, just without Colin Firth or a Glitzy Finale number.

an AI image of the immersive lifts

(Image credit: The London Tunnels)

Their history doesn’t stop there though, being used in the Cold War as a covert telephone exchange. And soon, all that history and secrecy will be open to Londoners – and not just to marvel at, but to drink and dine at too. As part of the reopening, the tunnels will become the deepest bar in the UK, as part of a £120 million makeover, set to welcome the public at the start of 2028.

25-feet in diameter and spanning around 8,000 square-metres, the tunnels are nestled beneath High Holborn, boasting plenty of room so you can forget the days of standing crowded on the side of a London road with a pint in the rain. To actually get down to the tunnels, WIlkinsonEyre - the architects heading up the project with The London Tunnels - has proposed a lift with wrap-around LED screens. They will be decked out with huge screens, interactive structure, and immersive technology which will transport you right back to the tunnels’ past. History has never been so delicious.

The tunnels themselves were thought to have been the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s Q Branch in the James Bond series, so expect to be served up a classic martini or two, shaken not stirred, of course.

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Hermione Blandford
Hermione Blandford
Content Editor

Hermione Blandford is the Content Editor for Shortlist’s social media which means you can usually find her scrolling through Instagram and calling it work, or stopping random people in the street and accosting them with a mini mic. She has previously worked in food and drink PR for brands including Johnnie Walker, Tanqueray, Gordon's, The Singleton, Lagavulin and Don Julio which means she is a self confessed expert in spicy margaritas and pints, regularly popping into the pub in the name of research.

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