Live Music in London: 19 Best Jazz Bars and Gig Venues (2026)

The jazz clubs. Eight rooms where the music is the reason you came, from the famous one in Soho to a 55-seat room above a Kennington restaurant.

Ronnie Scott's is the one jazz club I'd book if I had a single night in London. It opened in 1959 and was the first UK club to host American jazz players regularly, and it still has music seven nights a week, two main shows a night. Phones stay in your pocket during sets: no photos, filming or recording.

Big names are expensive: ARTEMIS on 17 November is £40 to £55, and Christian McBride on 1 and 2 October £60 to £75. The cheap way in is the Monday Jazz Jam, a late show in the new 140-capacity Upstairs at Ronnie's (listed from 12 October), at £10 on the door, or the Late Late Show after the second set (£12 on 31 October), when tickets are often still available at the door.

Price: £10 to £75 plus food and drink. Nights: every night. Age: 18+, with a 14+ exception for early and lunchtime shows with a parent. Tube: Tottenham Court Road. The drawback: the big shows sell out weeks ahead, and Upstairs isn't wheelchair accessible.

PizzaExpress Live Soho (the old PizzaExpress Jazz Club) is a basement under a pizza restaurant on Dean Street that turned 50 in May 2026, and it's the easiest dinner-and-a-show in town. Your ticket reserves a table, you eat pizza before the set, and the music runs every night of the week. It hosted early shows by Gregory Porter, Norah Jones and Diana Krall.

Tickets are fair for Soho: Barry Green on 2 November is £20, the Simon Spillett Quartet on 12 October is £25, and the Zoe Rahman Trio on 18 November £30, plus a £2 booking fee each. Big names cost more and go fast: Courtney Pine's two shows on 14 November (£60) have already sold out. It's a restaurant, so expect some plate noise, and the basement is reached by stairs only.

Price: from £20 plus £2 fee and food. Nights: every night, plus Friday to Sunday lunchtimes. Tube: Tottenham Court Road. Best for a first jazz night with dinner sorted.

The Vortex is a volunteer-run, not-for-profit club on the first floor above Gillett Square in Dalston, and it's where I'd go for jazz that's still being worked out on stage. The programme leans contemporary and improvised rather than standards. The room holds about 100, up to 75 seated.

Prices are low for the calibre: ONMO on 5 November is £15, the Julian Siegel Quartet on 3 October is £20, the Craig Taborn and Peter Evans double show on 28 October £25, and the Sunday jam session £6. It's closed on Mondays.

Price: £6 to £25. Nights: Tuesday to Sunday, 7:45pm to 11pm. Station: Dalston Junction (Overground). The drawback: seats aren't guaranteed unless you're a member, so expect to stand at a popular gig.

Cafe OTO, a few minutes' walk from the Vortex, is a daytime cafe that turns into a concert room seven nights a week for free jazz, experimental and improvised music. It's run by a not-for-profit and has a Yamaha grand piano. It isn't the place for Gershwin, but if you want to hear what London's more adventurous players are doing, this is it.

For November's EFG London Jazz Festival, Robyn's Rocket with Laura Jurd plays on 17 November for £12 in advance. The Globe Unity Orchestra takes a three-night residency on 3 to 5 November at £38 advance. There's a 10% booking fee, capped at £2.80.

Price: £12 to £42. Nights: every night; the listed time is doors, music half an hour later. Station: Dalston Junction (Overground). Step-free. Seating is limited and first come, so arrive at doors if you want a chair.

The 606 Club is a basement supper club on Lots Road in Chelsea, run by musician Steve Rubie since 1976, with music seven nights a week plus Sunday lunch. It's the most grown-up night of the lot: dinner at your table, and the room stays quiet during many sets. The club celebrates its 50th anniversary with a festival on 12 to 25 October 2026; the Jamie Cullum night on 13 October is already fully booked.

There's no ticket. A music charge is added to your bill: £18 Sunday to Thursday, £23 Friday and Saturday, £16 at Sunday lunch (special nights can cost more). The catch is the licence: non-members can only drink alcohol with food, a main course on Fridays and Saturdays, so a realistic night is about £45 a head.

Price: £16 to £23 music charge plus dinner. Nights: every night and Sunday lunch. Station: Imperial Wharf (Overground), about 7 minutes. No age limit. The drawback is the location: it's a walk from anything else you'll be doing.

Toulouse Lautrec in Kennington is a restaurant with a 55-seat jazz club on the second floor, run by two brothers since 2008. It's the south London jazz room I'd send a friend to, especially on a Tuesday, when the jam session rotates through New Orleans (first Tuesday), Latin, funk and blues for £12.

Weekend shows are ticketed: Lulu Pierre's Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and Betty Carter tribute on 31 October is £27 including the fee. On the first floor, the Piano Room has live music Thursday to Saturday from 7pm for £5 or £7.

Price: £5 to £27. Nights: Tuesday jams, most Thursdays to Sundays. Tube: Kennington (Northern line). The drawback: two flights of stairs to the club and no lift.

Oliver's Jazz Bar is a small bar in Greenwich with live music every night, and the best reason to stay in Greenwich after the Cutty Sark and the park. Entry is typically £10 to £15 depending on who's playing, paid in cash, and you can bring your own food because there are only a few bar snacks.

Reserve a table on the website, and turn up on time: tables not claimed by 9:15pm go to the waiting list. Music starts between 7:30pm and 9pm depending on the night, so check the calendar.

Price: £10 to £15, cash. Nights: every night. Station: Cutty Sark (DLR). The drawback: it's small and gets full on weekends, so book.

The Bull's Head is a Young's pub in Barnes with a jazz room that has been booking big names and rising players for generations. It no longer has music every night, and the programme now mixes jazz with Brazilian, flamenco and Latin nights, but the jazz dates are good value: Chris Read and Friends on 6 November is £10 in advance, the Zena James Jazz Groove Quartet on 23 October £15 plus a £1.50 fee.

Price: free to £26 (Guinga, 17 October). Nights: most Thursdays to Saturdays, some Sunday afternoons, and a free open mic on one Tuesday a month. Station: Barnes Bridge (train from Waterloo). Skip it on a short trip unless you're staying west: there's no Tube.

Gig rooms and music pubs. Bands, songwriters, soul and folk, in rooms from a 300-capacity basement to a Victorian chapel.

The 100 Club has been in the same basement at 100 Oxford Street since 1942 and hosted the 1976 Punk Special with the Sex Pistols and The Clash. It's a 300-capacity standing room with a mixed programme: blues on Tuesdays, swing on some Mondays, and punk, rock and indie the rest of the week. If you want one classic London gig in a basement, this is it.

Tickets run from about £10 to £27.50 plus fees: GANS on 6 November is £17, Ray Gelato & The Giants on 3 October £19 in advance plus a booking fee, and Elijah Fox on 3 November £25. Buy through the links on the club's own events page, because each promoter uses a different ticket seller.

Price: £10 to £27.50. Nights: most nights, 7:30pm to 11pm. Tube: Tottenham Court Road. The drawback: 19 steps down, no lift and no accessible toilet.

The Jazz Cafe in Camden is the name that confuses visitors: it's mostly soul, funk, R&B and global music now, with jazz only on some nights. Treat it as a great mid-size gig room with a restaurant balcony, not a jazz club. Everything Yes on 14 October is £20 standing, Mark Guiliana's BEAT MUSIC on 3 November £25 standing, and a restaurant table for either costs up to £45 or £55.

Price: £20 to £55; Saturday's Soul City club night from £5. Nights: gigs most nights, finishing by 10:30pm; DJ club nights Friday and Saturday. Tube: Camden Town. Strictly 18+, no re-entry. The balcony is up 16 steps.

Union Chapel in Islington is a Grade I-listed working church that hosts seated concerts several nights a week, mostly folk, Americana and singer-songwriters. It's the room I'd pick for a seated folk gig in London. Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn on 29 November cost £44.64 all-in.

The cheaper way in is the Jazz Jam at the Chapel in the bar on some Sunday afternoons (11 October, 1pm to 4pm), £5 suggested donation. At most shows you can eat first at the Margins cafe, whose profits go to the chapel's homelessness project.

Price: £5 to £45. Nights: several a week. Tube: Highbury & Islington. The drawbacks: the pews are unreserved, so you line up early for a good seat, and you can't take a drink into the chapel.

Green Note on Parkway in Camden is a small roots and folk room with music seven nights a week, and it's one of the few venues here that welcomes all ages. It was Time Out's London Venue of the Year in 2015. Truffle Valley Boys on 2 October are £15 in advance, and Darden Smith on 6 October £17.50; door tickets are usually about £3 more.

Price: £5 to £17.50. Nights: every night, plus weekend matinées; open mic the last Tuesday of the month (£5). Tube: Camden Town. The drawback: no table reservations, so seats go to whoever arrives first.

The Lexington on Pentonville Road is a 200-capacity room above a bar, booking indie and alternative bands most nights. Alice Costelloe on 15 October is £15.82 in advance, Penelope Isles on 30 October £18.15, and Deradoorian on 1 November £18.99.

Price: about £15 to £19. Nights: almost every night, then club nights on Fridays and Saturdays. Tube: Angel, about 5 minutes. 18+. The drawback: the gig room is up a flight of stairs with no lift.

The Troubadour in Earl's Court opened in 1954, and Bob Dylan played here in 1962; Paul Simon, Adele and Ed Sheeran came later. Today the downstairs club runs songwriter bills of three or four mostly unknown acts, which makes it a lottery, but a cheap one: £8.80 on 1 October, £16.50 for Holy Coves on 21 November.

Sunday is jazz night, £9.50 a person paid on the night, and it's the Troubadour I'd pick if you're staying in west London.

Price: £8.80 to £16.50. Nights: most nights; jazz Sundays. Tube: West Brompton or Earl's Court. 18+.

The Windmill is a small pub venue up Brixton Hill that books new punk, indie and experimental bands several nights a week, often four to a bill, for about the price of a pint. Hiding Places on 11 November is £7 plus a £1 fee, and a four-band Sunday on 1 November is £5. On some Sundays (11 October, 7pm) the No Frills Folk Club runs a free round-the-table session anyone can join.

Price: free to £8 for most bills. Nights: several a week. Tube: Brixton (Victoria line), then a 10-minute walk uphill or a short bus ride. 18+. The drawback: you'll rarely have heard of anyone on the bill, which is the point.

Free and cheap live music. Four places where you can hear good music for nothing, or close to it.

Jamboree calls itself the home of world music in King's Cross, and much of its music is free: a Celtic session every Tuesday from 8:30pm, TJ Johnson's Peak of the Week (jazz, blues, gospel and country) on Wednesday afternoons, swing and jazz on Sunday afternoons, and a free folk jam on the first, second, third and last Saturday afternoon of each month (Balkan, Cajun, world folk, klezmer, in that order). It moved here from Cable Street in Limehouse, so ignore old listings with that address.

Price: free for the weekly sessions; ticketed gigs from £9. Nights: something most days. Tube: King's Cross St Pancras, about 5 minutes down a cobbled lane off Gray's Inn Road. Step-free. The drawback: it's tucked away and easy to miss.

The Harrison is a pub near King's Cross with a basement folk and roots venue that has run all-day folk festivals since 2011. Ticketed gigs are cheap (John Kirkpatrick on 8 October is £15, Charlie Hula on 7 November £9), and the free sessions are the real draw: a Saturday singaround at 1pm (17 October, 21 November), a Saturday tune session at 2pm, and free Brazilian choro in the bar on some Sunday evenings (25 October, 29 November).

Price: free to £15. Nights: basement gigs most nights. Tube: King's Cross St Pancras. The drawback: the basement has no published step-free route.

The Dublin Castle on Parkway is the Camden pub whose stage has hosted Madness, Blur, Amy Winehouse and Arctic Monkeys, with bands in the back room every night and a free open mic most Mondays. Weekend bills lean on tribute and unknown bands, and it's all the better value for it: most nights cost £10 to £15 on the door. Mercy Dogs on 29 September is £10 on the door, Bim Ska La Bim on 5 November £12.50 in advance.

Price: free most Mondays, £10 to £15 otherwise. Nights: every night, doors 7:15pm. Tube: Camden Town. Strictly 18+. The drawback: the back room is small, and there's no published access information.

The Blues Kitchen in Camden is a bar and kitchen with live blues, soul and Motown most nights, and it's free every weeknight and before 9pm on Fridays and Saturdays. Get there before 9pm at the weekend. On Saturdays the house band plays three sets before the DJs take over until 3am, so it's more party than listening room.

Price: free (weeknights and before 9pm Fri and Sat). Nights: most nights. Tube: Camden Town. The drawback: no accessible toilet on the ground floor, and the first-floor lift was out of order on 28 September 2026. Age: 18+ outside the restaurant.