American Bar at the Savoy
No visit to London is complete without a drink at the Savoy Hotel’s American Bar, one of the city’s oldest cocktail bars and the birthplace of many a classic concoction. The spot's legendary bartender Harry Craddock fled Prohibition in the 1920s and remained at the bar’s helm until 1939, compiling his creations into the Savoy Cocktail Book—still considered a bartending bible today. Classics share space on the menu with a wide variety of contemporary creations, many of which are inspired by small snippets of London history—like the Policeman’s Hook (whisky, Amontillado sherry, kombu, barley syrup, and bitters), which takes its name from a spot on Great Newport Street where police directing traffic used to hang their coats in the ’30s.