London's Great Cocktails - And How They Were Invented

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London has shaken and stirred into life some of the finest cocktails ever created — but how did they come about? And what's behind their sometimes odd names? Here, we drink deep from the well of London cocktail knowledge, to bring you these, if you will, cocktales.

Black Velvet

Maybe you've quaffed this concoction of Guinness and champagne during St Patrick's Day celebrations, yet its origins are far more sombre — in essence, it is liquid mourning. The Black Velvet is thought to have been created in early 1861 at Brooks's Club in St. James’s Street, one of London’s oldest gentlemen's clubs, and one that's still going. Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert had died only weeks earlier of typhoid fever, triggering a period of mourning throughout Britain (Victoria famously wore black for the rest of her life) and this obsidian-coloured cocktail was the bar's own way of showing respect. As someone said at this dark time in the nation's history, "even the champagne should be in mourning".  

Make it: Simply half-fill a flute (or pewter mug) with champagne or sparkling wine and slowly pour Guinness on top. It will float slightly showing off the colour differentiation. If you want to go hardcore, make it in a pint glass. If you want to be thrifty, swap out the fizz for cider.
Drink it: Sweeting's fish restaurant in the City, where this drink is a speciality, served up in pewter tankards. Have a few oysters alongside.

The Breakfast Martini

If Paddington Bear drank (and judging by some of the capers he gets up to, maybe he does), this would be his tipple, and he'd be doffing his hat to one Salvatore Calabrese — a lionsed name in the cocktail world. It was in the late 1990s that Calabrese conceived this now-classic drink, while he was working at the Library Bar at the Lanesborough hotel, near Hyde Park Corner. Calabrese usually only had an espresso for breakfast before leaving for work, but one morning, his wife made him toast and marmalade and insisted he ate it. Calabrese ended up taking the jar to work with him, and the result was the Breakfast Martini. Now you know why breakfast is the most important meal of the day…

Make it: Combine 50ml of gin, 12ml of triple sec and 12ml of fresh lemon juice, and shake over ice together with a spoonful of English marmalade. Strain and serve in a Martini glass.
Drink it: Call into the decadent Library Bar where it was first concocted.

Buck's Fizz

Surely the most commonly-sipped cocktail on this list, the Buck's Fizz takes its name from Mayfair's Buck's Club, where in 1921, bartender Malachi "Pat" McGarry whipped up this concoction of champagne and fresh orange juice, as a riff on a peach and champagne cocktail one of the members had requested from him. Technically, the difference between the Buck's Fizz and the Mimosa is that the former is made with two parts champagne to one part juice, whereas its French cousin is equal parts of each. (That said, ratios can be all over the place these days.) Once enjoyed at Christmas and other special occasions, thanks to the rise of the bottomless brunch, Buck's Fizz is almost as common as tap water in London — although the champagne's usually subbed out for prosecco.

Make it: We've already told you how, although if you want to go all out, make it a 1950s-style Champagne Buck, with the addition of gin and cherry brandy.
Drink it: The wonderfully fun Little Nan's Bar in Deptford serves up Buck's Fizz by the teapot.

Collins

Though there are multiple theories as to the origin of this easy-drinking cocktail based on gin and lemon, the most likely leads back to the mid 19th century and a hotel in Mayfair. John Collins was a bartender working at a bar called The Coffee House, set within Limmer's Hotel on Conduit Street — a hotel noted at the time for being "one of the dirtiest in London". John Collins created the drink as a twist on a classic gin punch (one of the most popular drinks of the time) and became immortalised in a limerick in a 1892 book titled Drinks of the World, so leading to the cocktail's name:

My name is John Collins,
head waiter at Limmer's,
Corner of Conduit Street,
Hanover Square,
My chief occupation is filling
brimmers
For all the young gentlemen
frequenters there.

An alternative and rather fun story places the origin of this cocktail in New York, and involves what is known as the Great Tom Collins Hoax of 1874. A bar-industry practical joke taken to extremes, the hoax involved a barman telling a customer that a man named Tom Collins had been in the bar spreading rumours about him or insulting him. Waiting until the customer got worked up, he would go on to say that the man could be found at another nearby bar. When the customer went to this bar and asked after Tom Collins, this cocktail was what he was given. Fun though it is, the Mayfair theory holds more ground, not least because of London's fascination with gin at the time.

Make it: Combine 50ml of gin, 25ml of fresh lemon juice, 10ml measure of sugar syrup and shake (or mix) together. Top-up with soda water.
Drink it: Hit up one of London’s best gin bars.

Corpse Reviver #1 and #2

The most brutally apt name for a hair of the dog drink, the double-whammy of classic Corpse Reviver cocktails were the work of the Savoy's head bartender Harry Craddock, who rattled off both in 1930 — at a time when you can imagine London's Bright Young Things were in regular need of tasty potions to drag them back into the land of the living. The Corpse Reviver (cognac, calvados and Italian vermouth), wrote Craddock in his seminal Savoy Cocktail Book, was "To be taken before 11 a.m., or whenever steam and energy are needed." (We wouldn't necessarily reckon starting QUITE so early...) Its more famous sibling, the Corpse Reviver #2, warned Craddock, could have an adverse effect if you went overboard: "Four of these taken in swift succession will unrevive the corpse again."

Make it: Corpse Reviver #1: Quarter measure Italian vermouth, quarter measure calvados, half measure brandy — shaken over ice and strained into a cocktail glass. Corpse Reviver #2: Quarter wineglass each of lemon juice, Lillet Blanc, Cointreau and dry gin — plus a dash of absinthe — shaken over ice and strained into a cocktail glass.
Drink it: In the Savoy's American Bar, of course, which will whisk you back to right back to that decadent era of London.

Hanky Panky

Another revered Savoy head bartender was Ada "Coley" Coleman. She mixed drinks for the likes of Mark Twain and Marlene Dietrich, but one of her best known concoctions was made for an actor called Charles Hawtrey (not the speccy one from the Carry On franchise, which is surprising given the cocktail's name). The story goes that Hawtrey walked in the bar and demanded something "with a bit of punch in it". Colely duly mixed up gin, sweet vermouth and a dash of Fernet Branca, Hawtrey drained the glass, then exclaimed: "By Jove! This is the real hanky-panky!"

Make it: 40ml gin, 40ml sweet vermouth and a couple of dashes of Fernet Branca, stirred over ice, strained into a coupe glass, and garnish with a twist of orange peel.
Drink it: Again, it's got to be in the Savoy, although if you fancy a change from the American Bar, go to the hotel's equally sublime Beaufort Bar.

Espresso Martini

The late mixologist Dick Bradsell was a legend of the London cocktail scene. He was on fire during the 1980s when he not only created many world-famous cocktails we now consider to be classics, but he is also widely credited with starting a revolution that has led to the array of great bars London now has. He came up with this particular number in the late-1980s while working at the (now shuttered) Soho Brasserie on Greek Street. Bradsell explained that it took a well-known and worse-for-wear American model (who he never named) coming into the bar and demanding a drink that would "wake me up, then f**k me up", to give him the idea for this punchy drink. The coffee machine was located nearby, and inspiration struck. Not long later, when he began working with The Pharmacy restaurant in Notting Hill, which was opened by Damien Hirst, the cocktail made it on to the menu under the name 'Pharmaceutical Stimulant'. The drink has since shot to such superstar status, there are entire Espresso Martini festivals.

Make it: Combine 50ml of vodka, a single espresso, 10-15ml of sugar syrup and a dash each of kahlua and Tia Maria. Shake well over ice, strain and serve in a Martini glass. Garnish with a few (usually three) floating coffee beans.
Drink it: What better place to drink such as brutal, in-your-face drink as the Barbican's Martini Bar.

Bramble

Another Bradsell invention, the Bramble is in many ways the antithesis of the Espresso Martini — light, fruity, effervescent, summery and — if this doesn't sound strange for an alcoholic cocktail — innocent feeling. Difford's Guide explains that Bradsell invented this elixir of gin, blackberries and lemon juice in the mid 1980s in Fred's Club in Soho (another bar no longer with us) while recalling childhood memories of blackberry picking on the Isle of Wight. Brambles, of course, are what blackberries grown on — and just as picking fruit from these can leave you with sore fingers, so drinking one too many brambles will give you a sore head.

Make it: Shake 50ml London dry gin,  25ml lemon juice and ¾tbsp sugar syrup over ice, and strain over a glass of crushed ice. Drizzle ¾tbsp crème de mure into the mix, and garnish with blackberries and mint if in season.
Drink it: They used to make these well and cheap at Bar Story in Peckham, but since that closed, ask them to make you one in Covent Garden's Freud Bar, which has it on the menu, and is close to the defunct Fred's Club in both name and location.

Vesper Martini

This is probably London’s most famous cocktail, though few will have heard of barman Gilberto Preti who is thought to have created it. Preti was working in the bar of Duke's hotel just off St James's Street in the early 1950s when he created the drink for the first time, especially for one particular customer. As luck would have it, that customer was no other than Ian Fleming. So impressed was he with the cocktail, that he included it in a book he wrote shortly after: Casino Royale, the first James Bond novel. In the book, Bond explains to a barman how to make it, saying:

Three measures of Gordon's (gin), one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet [now called Lillet Blanc]. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?

When presented with the finished product, Bond says:

This drink's my own invention. I'm going to patent it when I can think of a good name.

Later in the book, he goes on to name the cocktail after secret agent Vesper Lynd, who he falls in love with.

This particular version differs from most martinis in a number of ways. Firstly, it uses a mix of gin and vodka, whereas usually one or the other will be chosen. Secondly, it's shaken rather than stirred, which is something many bartenders would criticise as it leads to more dilution of the drink and can 'bruise the gin'. Thirdly, the sweeter Lillet Blanc is an unusual choice, with a dry vermouth being much more commonly used.

Interestingly, in books later than Quantum of Solace, Bond can be found to order both gin and vodka martinis but never again this creation. Maybe Fleming went off it?

Other martini variations London is famous for: the Churchill Martini, in which you stir the gin with ice, while glancing at a bottle of vermouth (it's very important the bottle remains unopened, otherwise it'll ruin the drink); and the One Sip Martini from Tayēr + Elementary, named the world's second-best bar in 2022.

Make it: Combine 75ml of gin, 25ml of vodka and 12.5ml Lillet Blanc vermouth, shake well over ice and serve in a Martini glass with a twist of lemon.
Drink it: Well, it has to be Duke's hotel, the original and still the best. Beware, they do it in one size only: large and very strong.

Original words in this article by Ben O'Norum. Updated in 2024 by Will Noble.

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