Address: Horace Jones Vault, Tower Bridge, London, SE1 2DA, United Kingdom
Door: Open door/walk-ins
Style: Café bar
Food: Tapas/plates & dishes
Established: 2005
Tucked away in the base of Tower Bridge, this arched room was once a coal store for the steam engine which raised the bridge. But when the mechanism was converted to electric power back in 1976, the space became first a garage for the bridge master's car and then a gift shop: it only became a café bar in 2005.
This is one enviable location. The back window, once the hatch where coal was offloaded from barges, overlooks the underbelly of this iconic bridge as the Thames laps below. (Most's name, appropriately, comes from the Russian word for bridge.)
Drinks wise, things are not much better than what one might expect in what is a rather touristy location. The cocktails are overly ambitious and the once impressive beer range has recently slipped so no longer compensates for the staff's mixological short fallings. The brief, yet wide-ranging wine list and champagne selection is a little better.
A large terrace lying in the shadow of the bridge on the Butlers Wharf side, hosts BBQs in the summer completes the tale of location, location, location.