Merchant House London

Over a thousand bottles across three small rooms at one address, six hundred of them whisky, sitting alongside gin and rum collections built around the history of the trade that funded the City above them (Merchant House).

Why go

The list is the whole argument, and it is a list nobody finishes. Merchant House was established in 2014 at the end of a cobbled passage off Bow Lane, in earshot of St Mary-le-Bow, and you get in through what Simon Difford described as "a spirits boutique with stairs down to the basement bar lying to the right as you enter the shop" (Difford's Guide).

Downstairs is green Chesterfield banquettes, small round tables, vintage chairs, china cabinets full of bottles and black and white photographs, which Difford read as "something of a granny's living room feel, a very hospitable granny who likes her gin". Someone plays the upright piano most evenings. A jazz band turns up on Tuesdays.

The collection focuses on the mercantile history of gin and rum, rare old bottlings next to new releases, and the bar has since fused a six-hundred-bottle whisky collection into it. Gin and rum drive the cocktail menu too. If you want to go further than a drink, the bar runs masterclasses in all three spirits and a membership club, The Connoisseurs' Collective, that gets members into tastings.

One caveat about a claim. The venue's own headline is that this is "where the hospitality industry choose to drink". That is the bar talking about itself, and our record of 589 London industry picks contains no vote for it.

Order this / avoid

• Order: ask the bar to take you through the rum, which is the part of the collection the room was built on. Then a gin off the historical end of the list rather than the fashionable end, and something from the whisky shelf if you are staying.
• Avoid: arriving with a group and no reservation, because the place is seating-only and small. Arriving before 5pm between Sunday and Wednesday, since the early opening is Thursday to Saturday only.

What locals & experts say

• Simon Difford, Difford's Guide, July 2015: "This excellent subterranean lounge bar is hidden away at the end of a cobbled passageway which lies off Bow Lane." On the list: "Inspired by the British Empire, the Merchant House is a celebration of gin and rum with an impressive range of both spirits stretching to rare old bottlings as well as brand new releases." Note the date. This is the only bylined verdict this pass could reach and it is eleven years old. ref
• The venue on its own collection: "Over 1,000 bottles in 3 bars at 1 location", including "our unique 600 bottle collection of whiskies focussing on quality production and unique flavours from around the world". ref
• No industry vote. None of the 589 London picks in our chef-vote file names Merchant House, which is worth stating precisely because the bar's own pitch is about industry regulars.

Good to know

• Where: 13 Well Court, off Bow Lane EC4M 9DN. Mansion House or St Paul's. It is down a passage and through a shop.
• Timing: Sunday to Wednesday 5pm to 1am. Thursday, Friday and Saturday 3pm to 1am.
• Booking: walk-ins are welcome and the venue is seating-only, so reservations are advised for groups of any size.
• Rooms: three bars at the one address, including The Brig, which the venue bills as London's smallest private bar.
• If you want more than a drink: gin, rum and whisky masterclasses, plus The Connoisseurs' Collective, the bar's own membership club for tastings.
• Food: small plates rather than a menu to plan around.
• Hygiene: FSA rating 4, City of London Corporation, inspected 9 January 2026, FHRSID 709405. The components read hygiene 0, structural 10, confidence in management 5, where lower is better, so the food handling scored perfectly and the mark is against a low-ceilinged basement. ref
• Sites: one. The three bars are rooms inside this address, and a register search finds no second London premises for the operator.
• Names: it trades as Merchant House of Bow Lane, the hygiene register calls it Merchant House, and this list calls it Merchant House London. Same place.

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: none. His saved-places export carries an empty note for this row. The master CSV line "Hidden City bar with deep gin and rum lists" was written by an earlier enrichment pass; it is broadly right and it misses the whisky, so the row has been rewritten rather than quoted.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

should-visit — Worth the detour if you drink spirits, and book if there are more than two of you. Merchant House keeps over a thousand bottles across three small rooms at one address off Bow Lane, reached through what is effectively a spirits shop and down a flight of stairs. The collection is built around the mercantile history of gin and rum, with a six hundred bottle whisky shelf fused into it, and the staff are the index, because nobody reads a list that size in an evening. Simon Difford called it an 'excellent subterranean lounge bar' and described a low-ceilinged basement of green Chesterfield banquettes, bottle-laden china cabinets and black and white photographs, with someone playing the upright piano most evenings and a jazz band on Tuesdays. This is depth rather than movement, and depth is the right axis for a spirits bar. It holds at should-visit rather than higher for two honest reasons: the only bylined verdict reachable is from 2015, and the bar's own claim to be where the hospitality industry drinks finds no support in a file of 589 London industry picks.