Comedy Clubs in London: The 14 Best, Plus Free Nights (2026)

The West End clubs. Proper comedy clubs, open most nights, a short walk from Leicester Square.

The Comedy Store opened in 1979 and is still the club I'd send a first-timer to. The Best in Stand Up show puts five comics on over about two hours, with an interval, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, in a room built for comedy. A standard seat for the 6:30pm show on Saturday 17 October 2026 is £24 on the door or £27.25 online, because the website adds a £3.25 booking fee to every ticket. Thursdays are cheaper: £20 on the door on 29 October.

On Sundays the Comedy Store Players do improv, a London institution in its own right (£22 on the door on 11 October). The best-value night is Old Rope, once a month, where well-known comics try new material for £13 on the door (Monday 12 October). King Gong, the open mic on the last Monday of the month, is £10 on the door.

Price: £10 to £27.25 for a standard seat (premium seats £31 on the door, £34.25 online). Nights: Thursday to Sunday, plus some Mondays and Tuesdays. Tube: Piccadilly Circus or Leicester Square. Food: pizza and burgers. The drawback: 27 steps to get in, and wheelchair users must transfer to a chair-lift (electric wheelchairs can't be admitted), and seats are first come, first served, so arrive when doors open, an hour before the show.

Top Secret is a basement club on Drury Lane with comedy every night and the best odds in London of a famous comic walking on unannounced. It's also the West End's cheapest good comedy: on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights you pay a £1 booking fee (free with a student or other discount ticket), and the comics collect cash after the show. Wednesday is £3, and so is Thursday at the Kingsway room.

The full-price shows are still fair for central London: £14 on Thursday 1 October, £20 for Friday's 9pm Late Show and £22 for Saturday's 8pm show. The club now has a second room at 23 Kingsway, a few minutes away, so check which address is on your ticket.

Price: £1 to £22. Nights: every night; Saturday has four shows from 3:30pm to 10:45pm. Tube: Holborn. Food: none sold, but you can bring takeout in. The drawback: the room gets packed and seating is unallocated. Unlike most clubs, it lets in under-18s with a parent.

JK Comedy Club is the cheap, reliable option by Leicester Square: a host and six working circuit comics in about 90 minutes, in a function room inside the Arboretum building on Charing Cross Road. Monday is £7, Wednesday £10, Thursday £12 and Saturday 8pm (17 October) £15, plus a £1 booking fee.

Price: £7 to £15. Nights: every night except Tuesday, which moves to its Soho room. Tube: Leicester Square, about 2 minutes. Food: bar only, or book a dinner-and-comedy deal from £22.50. The drawback: it's a room in a bar building, not a purpose-built club, and latecomers can lose their seat without a refund.

Theatres: book a named comic. Here you pick a specific comedian's hour, not a mixed bill.

Soho Theatre on Dean Street is where the big Edinburgh Fringe hours come to London, usually for a week or three. Its basement room, Soho Downstairs, is cabaret-seated and has the atmosphere of a club. Ahir Shah's Golden runs 5 to 17 October 2026 from £20, and Sophie Duker's Hot Beef Injection 26 October to 7 November, also from £20. Prices include a £2 restoration levy and a £2 booking fee, and they rise as shows sell.

The bar on the ground floor serves food all day and stays open until 2am on Fridays and Saturdays, which makes it the best place in Soho for a drink after the show. There's also a much bigger Soho Theatre in Walthamstow, in northeast London, a converted cinema that brings the same kind of programme to bigger audiences.

Price: from £20 to £25 for most October shows. Food: all day in the bar. Nights: Monday to Saturday. Tube: Tottenham Court Road. The drawback: you choose a comic, not a night out, so it's worth knowing who you like.

Leicester Square Theatre is a basement theatre under a church off Leicester Square that books touring headliners most nights. It's the room I'd pick to see one comic I already love in a proper seat. Nina Conti is £27 on 4 October, Alfie Moore £25 on 14 October, and Mark Thomas £22 on 8 November. Stewart Lee vs The Man-Wulf has 14 dates from 4 to 18 December, and some are already sold out.

Price: £22 to £27 for most shows, plus a booking fee online. Nights: most nights, 7pm and 9:30pm. Tube: Leicester Square. The drawback: snacks only, no hot food, and the big names sell out weeks ahead.

The Museum of Comedy is in the crypt of St George's Church in Bloomsbury, with a bar full of comedy memorabilia and two small performance spaces. It's run by the same company as Leicester Square Theatre. The pick is the Monday Club: new material from pros and new acts every Monday at 7pm, £5 in advance or on the door from 6pm. Tour previews are cheap too: Rachel Parris is £10.25 on 7 October.

Price: £5 to about £12. Nights: most evenings. Tube: Holborn or Tottenham Court Road, about 6 minutes. The drawback: the museum opens only around shows (evenings, plus weekend afternoons when there's a matinee), so check the hours before going just to look, and there's no food.

Neighborhood clubs. Worth the Tube ride: cheaper than the West End and often better.

Angel Comedy runs its own small club, pub and hub at the Bill Murray in Islington, and it's my pick for value in London. There's comedy every night. The house club shows run Thursday to Saturday: £11.25 plus a £1.25 fee on Thursday 8 October, £13.05 plus a £1.45 fee for Friday 16 October at 7:15pm. Anyone can pick the cheaper 'reduced' ticket, no questions asked. On other nights, well-known comics work up new hours here: Mark Watson on 5 October is £8.99 plus a £1.01 fee.

Price: £10 to £14.50 with fees. Nights: every night. Tube: Angel. Food: bar snacks only. The drawbacks: it's small, groups larger than four can't come on Friday or Saturday nights, and the toilets aren't accessible.

Camden Comedy Club is a room upstairs at the Camden Head on Camden High Street, with shows seven nights a week since 2014. It's a good fit if you're in Camden for the market or a gig. The mix is broad: £5 for Camden Comedy Uncut on Mondays, a free All-Star show every Thursday (book a free ticket), £12.50 for the Rat Pack on Fridays and £13 for Saturday Night Comedy on 3 October.

Price: free to £13. Nights: every night, mostly 7:30pm. Tube: Camden Town. The drawback: it's up a stairwell with no wheelchair access. Don't confuse it with the other Camden Head, in Islington, where Angel Comedy's free shows are.

Backyard Comedy Club in Bethnal Green is a big, purpose-built club that calls itself the cheapest professional comedy club in London, and on Thursdays that's hard to argue with: £7.50 plus a 75p fee in advance. Friday is £12.50 and Saturday £16 in advance, and door prices are higher (up to £20 and £24), so book ahead. There's pizza, and the room is fully step-free.

Price: £7.50 to £16 in advance. Nights: Thursday to Saturday, plus a free new-act night one Tuesday a month and the free Comedy Hump on the first Wednesday. Tube: Bethnal Green, 2 minutes. The drawback: strict rules. Collect your wristband by 7:15pm or pay a £3 late fee each, and phones stay away during the show.

Up the Creek in Greenwich is a proper weekend night out: a club show, then live-band karaoke and a late bar until 1am on Saturdays, with Detroit-style pizza from its kitchen. Friday and Saturday shows are £14.99 plus fees (£17.70 all in). Sunday brings a named headliner for less, like Rich Hall on 4 October for £12. The Thursday Blackout is the cheapest night: up to 20 new comics, and the audience decides how long each one stays on (£10.70).

Price: £10 to £14.99 plus fees. Nights: Thursday to Sunday. Station: Cutty Sark on the DLR (the Docklands Light Railway, which takes the same tickets as the Tube), 1 minute. Food: pizza. The drawback: it's a trek from central London unless you're staying in Greenwich, and seating is unreserved.

Downstairs at the King's Head has run in the basement of a Crouch End pub since 1981 and calls itself London's friendliest comedy club. Thursday is the famous try-out night: up to 16 new and established acts for £6 in advance. Saturday's Comedy Cabaret has four or five circuit acts for £16 in advance.

Price: £6 to £19. Nights: Thursday and Saturday, 8:30pm. Getting there: no Tube; take the W7 bus from Finsbury Park. The drawbacks: no lift, and on busy nights you may share a table. Skip it on a short trip unless you're staying in north London.

Big Belly is a bar and comedy club in a street-food hall on the South Bank, near Southwark station. Monday to Thursday the price is hard to beat: from £5, and every ticket includes a free drink or shot. It's the easy option after a day on the South Bank.

Price: from £5 midweek; weekends cost more. Nights: every night. Tube: Southwark. Food: street-food vendors. The drawbacks: weekend prices only show when you book, and bills mix known names with newer acts.

Free comedy and new-act nights. Free doesn't mean bad: working comics use these rooms to test new jokes.

Angel Comedy at the Camden Head is the best free comedy in London, and it runs every night of the week. The pub is on Camden Walk in Islington, just off Camden Passage, not in Camden Town. Sunday to Thursday is Angel Comedy RAW, a mix of new acts and experienced comics trying new jokes; Friday and Saturday are fuller free club shows, with a second 9:30pm show on Saturdays.

There are no tickets. Someone at the bottom of the stairs hands out hand stamps from about 90 minutes before the show, one per person, and when they're gone, they're gone. At weekends get there at least an hour and a half early; on weeknights, 45 minutes before doors is usually enough.

Price: free. Nights: every night, 7:30pm. Tube: Angel. Food: full pub meals, but not in the comedy room. The drawback: the weekend line.

Comedy Virgins at the Cavendish Arms in Stockwell calls itself London's most famous open mic: new comics, then the audience claps off for a small gold plastic trophy. It's free every Tuesday and Wednesday at 7pm, with extra 9pm shows. Book a free ticket to guarantee a seat. For a cheap date, the £24 bundle for two adds a cocktail each and a large pizza.

Price: free. Nights: Tuesday and Wednesday. Tube: Nine Elms or Stockwell. The drawback: it's an open mic, so quality swings act to act. That's the fun.