Simmons Fitzrovia (Bar)

Top 10 things you need to know about Simmons bar:

1) I can remember a day, far back in the hazy years of my youth, when I would sneak into the pub (underage drinking was, I think, easier back then) and feeling like captain of my castle and prince of my domain, buy a round of drinks for my friends with a hard-earned ten pound note.

2) Of course, nowadays, as I gingerly approach a bar with ten pounds in my pocket, I wonder whether I can even get two beers for that princely sum and look sadly at the wasabi peanuts far beyond my reach.

3) Enter Simmons bar, land of the happy, happy hour, that goes on from 4pm – 9pm (when happy hour became happy hours it was a good thing in my mind) and where your tenner (in Central London) will get you four drinks!

4) That’s right, you didn't start hallucinating from that odd disease you picked up on the Tube: £10 will get you four bottles of beer; or four glasses of wine; or four spirits and mixers; or two cocktails.

5) We went to Simmons bar in Fitzrovia, but there are, in fact, five of these money-saving bars around London - the locations of each I will be memorising for budget drink suggestions.

6) Considering that, normally, drinks that cheap would suggest you’re in the type of Wetherspoons pub where the floor is particularly sticky, Simmons Fitzrovia is actually a nice, buzzy bar; so buzzy, in fact, that I would suggest booking a table if you want to drink and sit.

7) With an overall kitschy vibe, low lighting and an eclectic selection of lampshades, it’s a perfectly acceptable drinking spot for the centre of town.

8) The people enjoying the cheap booze were youngish office workers, and, if my office was near one of the Simmons bars, I would head here with colleagues for an after-work drink too.

9) The cocktails are good, if you get over the offensively bad descriptions, including one which mainly talks about a 'fit' girl at the bar.

10) But maybe I should mention the most important thing: you can get four drinks for a tenner! Did I mention that, oh, I did, did I? But seriously, four drinks for a tenner!...read more