Made ByBar

Artesian

Chef in Residence

Giulia Cuccurullo

Bar Director

01CityLondon, United Kingdom
02RecognitionWorld's 50 Best — No. 1

Artesian at The Langham London held the World's 50 Best Bars number one position four consecutive years from 2012 to 2015, a run that placed it at the centre of London's cocktail conversation for a generation. The bar carries a Google rating of 4.6 from 865 reviews and has maintained a presence in the Top 500 Bars list through 2025. It remains one of the most award-documented hotel bars in Europe.

World's 50 Best · #1

At a glance

Price: $$$$
Per person: $70
Neighborhood: Marylebone

<h2>The Weight of a Record</h2><p>Portland Place cuts a wide, formal corridor through Marylebone, the kind of street that still carries the architectural confidence of Regency London. The Langham hotel anchors one end of it, its cream facade suggesting continuity rather than fashion. Inside, past the lobby's controlled hush, Artesian occupies a room that functions as both bar and statement: lacquered surfaces, high ceilings, the low murmur of guests who know where they are. This is not a bar that announces itself loudly. It does not need to.</p><p>What Artesian carries is a record that no London bar has matched. Four consecutive years at number one on the World's 50 Best Bars list, from 2012 through 2015, placed it in a category that has no obvious precedent in the city's drinking history. By 2019 it had returned to the upper tier at number 48, followed by number 41 in 2020. The 2023 ranking placed it at number 100, and Top 500 Bars listed it at number 151 in 2025. The trajectory across fifteen years is one of sustained, recalibrated relevance rather than a single moment of prominence.</p><h2>Hotel Bars as a Format: Where Artesian Sits</h2><p>London's hotel bar scene divides roughly into two categories. The first is the grand-hotel drawing-room model, where the bar functions primarily as an adjunct to a luxury property, serving guests and a neighbourhood clientele with a conservative list. The second, smaller category is the hotel bar that operates as a serious cocktail programme in its own right, competing directly with the city's standalone bars for awards recognition and destination trade. Artesian belongs firmly to the second group.</p><p>That distinction matters when thinking about peer comparisons. The bar's competitive set is not the Langham's lobby lounge or comparable hotel amenities. It sits alongside <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/bars/69-colebrooke-row-london">69 Colebrooke Row</a>, <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/bars/a-bar-with-shapes-for-a-name-london">A Bar with Shapes For a Name</a>, and <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/bars/academy-london">Academy</a> as part of London's technically serious cocktail tier, a group where programme credibility, awards history, and booking difficulty function as the primary signals. Within that comparable set, Artesian's accumulated World's 50 Best recognitions across nine consecutive years represent a depth of institutional recognition that most London bars cannot match.</p><p>Across the UK, hotel bar programmes have grown into a distinct category of their own. <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/bars/merchant-hotel-belfast">Merchant Hotel in Belfast</a> operates a comparable model, with a formal bar space inside a heritage hotel that competes for serious cocktail recognition. The pattern reflects a broader shift in how premium drinkers relate to hotel spaces: not as incidental amenities but as deliberate destinations.</p><h2>The Programme: Imagination as the Through-Line</h2><p>The awards language around Artesian consistently pairs two qualities: service warmth and creative ambition. London's cocktail bar evolution over the past decade has moved through several phases, from the technique-first era of foams and clarifications to a more recent interest in local ingredients, cultural narrative, and format experimentation. Artesian's sustained position through those shifts suggests a programme that updates without losing its central identity.</p><p>Hotel bars carry particular structural pressures that standalone venues do not. They serve a mixed clientele that includes hotel guests unfamiliar with the programme alongside regulars and destination visitors who have booked specifically for the bar. Managing that range without collapsing to the lowest common denominator is a practical achievement that the awards record implicitly validates. The warmth cited in Artesian's recognition is not incidental: it is the mechanism by which a technically ambitious programme remains accessible across that full range of guests.</p><p>For comparison, London's standalone cocktail venues, including <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/bars/amaro-london">Amaro</a> and the neighbourhood-focused model represented by <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/bars/academy-london">Academy</a>, operate without that structural complexity. The hotel bar format adds a layer of operational difficulty that makes Artesian's decade-plus of awards consistency more significant than a comparable run at an independent venue.</p><h2>Planning a Visit: Timing, Access, and What to Expect</h2><p>Artesian rewards planning. The bar is located at 1C Portland Place, London W1B 1JA, inside The Langham. The nearest Underground station is Oxford Circus, served by the Bakerloo, Central, and Victoria lines, placing the bar within a short walk of the West End and Marylebone's dining core.</p><p>Unlike some of London's smaller cocktail bars, which operate fixed seatings or require advance reservations weeks out, Artesian benefits from the structural capacity of a hotel bar. Walk-ins are more viable here than at an eight-seat counter operation. That said, peak evenings, particularly Thursday through Saturday, and periods around major London events, will compress available space. Guests who want specific seating or guaranteed access during busy periods should contact the hotel directly, as the bar operates within The Langham's broader reservations infrastructure.</p><p>The setting itself shapes the visit. Portland Place is quieter than the surrounding West End, which affects the approach: this is not a bar you stumble into. The formality of the Langham lobby is real, though the bar's own register is described consistently as warm rather than stiff. Dress expectations align with a five-star hotel environment, meaning smart casual at minimum, with more formal dress fitting the room well.</p><p><a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/bars/69-colebrooke-row-london">69 Colebrooke Row</a>, in Islington, operates a complementary programme with a more intimate format. <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/bars/a-bar-with-shapes-for-a-name-london">A Bar with Shapes For a Name</a> represents the city's contemporary natural-wine-adjacent direction.</p><p><a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/bars/bramble-edinburgh">Bramble in Edinburgh</a> holds a long-running reputation for technical cocktails in a low-key format. <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/bars/schofields-manchester">Schofield's in Manchester</a> operates a polished, classic-leaning programme. <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/bars/mojo-leeds-leeds">Mojo Leeds</a> and <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/bars/horseshoe-bar-glasgow-glasgow-bar">Horseshoe Bar Glasgow</a> represent different points on the UK's bar spectrum. Artesian, among this group, carries the most sustained international recognition by a significant margin.</p><div style="border:1px solid #ddd;padding:1.2em 1.5em;margin:2em 0;background:#fafafa;"><h3>Know Before You Go</h3><ul><li>Address: 1C Portland Place, London W1B 1JA (inside The Langham hotel)</li><li>Nearest tube: Oxford Circus (Bakerloo, Central, Victoria lines)</li><li>Reservations: Contact The Langham directly for table bookings; walk-ins possible but evenings compress quickly</li><li>Dress code: Smart casual minimum; the five-star hotel setting sets the register</li><li>Awards: World's 50 Best Bars No.1 (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)</li></ul></div>

Know before you go

Dress code: smart_casual
Reservations: recommended
Groups: Welcomed

Frequently asked

What distinctions does Artesian have?

Artesian has received recognition including: One of London’s most iconic hotel bars, Artesian combines incredibly warm and attentive service, with highly imaginative cocktails.; Top 500 Bars Best Bars #151 (2025); World's 50 Best Best Bars #100 (2023); World's 50 Best Best Bars #41 (2….

Where exactly is Artesian?

Artesian is located at 1C Portland Pl, London W1B 1JA, London.

What drink is Artesian famous for?

Artesian does not trade on a single proprietary serve. Its reputation, sustained across multiple World's 50 Best Bars rankings including four consecutive No.1 finishes between 2012 and 2015, rests on a programme built around creative range rather than one signature cocktail. The bar's identity is the ambition of the list itself.

What's the defining thing about Artesian?

No other bar in the World's 50 Best Bars history has held the No.1 position four years in a row, which Artesian did from 2012 through 2015. That record, set inside a five-star hotel on Portland Place rather than an independent venue, is what sets it apart from London's broader cocktail scene. The awards language consistently pairs two qualities: creative ambition and the warmth of service, which is a harder combination to sustain in a hotel format than in a smaller counter bar.

Should I book Artesian in advance?

For a weekday or early-evening visit, walk-in access at Artesian is more realistic than at London's smaller counter-format bars, given the scale of The Langham's operation at 1C Portland Place. Weekend evenings are a different calculation. Booking ahead removes the uncertainty, particularly if you are visiting as part of a group.

How many times has Artesian been ranked on the World's 50 Best Bars list?

Artesian has appeared on the World's 50 Best Bars list at least eight times across documented years, peaking at No.1 four consecutive years from 2012 to 2015, then placing No.3 in 2011, No.48 in 2019, No.41 in 2020, and No.100 in 2023. That span of over a decade in the rankings is unusual for any bar in London, let alone one operating within a hotel.