Cocktails & Casual Dining In A Room With A View

For London’s literary circles, foodies and West End shoppers, there is a relatively unknown room with a view to which they can retreat and put up their feet. Drinking and dining with a book in your hand is part of the social attraction of the 5th View at Waterstone’s Piccadilly, London W1 – Europe’s largest book store.

The chic interior, created by award winning designers combined with a sweeping view towards Big Ben, make this a wonderful airy space in which to meet, linger and lounge.

Nowhere else do books, cocktails and food collide so comfortably. Ask the mixologists to direct you to their favourite book on-shelf to discover daring daquiris or mellow manhattans. In the same way, 5th View’s gorgeous lunchtime tart menu is inspired by appetising picnic photos from favourite cook books. The evening menu is equally mouth watering with tapas inspired dishes such as roasted chorizo and pan-fried tiger prawns.

The brand new Lecture Room on the lower ground floor of the bookshop is the perfect venue for cookery demonstrations, book launches or parties in a unique space. Chefs such as Antony Worrall Thompson and Paul Rankin have already put their skills to use in the Lecture Room’s demonstration kitchen. Antony described the room as ‘a fantastic versatile space right in the centre of town’.

Whether your first love is food or books, a visit to both these venues in the characterful, former Simpsons building – the suave menswear store built in the 1930s – is a welcome haven, away from hectic W1.