Best Live Music Venues in Central London

Live music has been a part of human culture for an estimated 40,000 years. That might seem unbelievable to Christians but then if you like Christian music you are probably not our audience anyway. In those day instruments were made from bones whereas nowadays nightclubs and bars mostly broadcast music made on macs and pcs but the legacy of performers with instruments still live one and there are still great live music venues in London.

In fact live music has never been more popular, partly because of increasing populations but lets ignore that.

When people think about live music they often think about artists such as The Beatles; Jimi Hendrix; Amy Winehouse; the Rolling Stones; and Bob Marley. Although not all of these artists were from London they all performed in intimate live music venues in London when their careers were developing and arguably London is where they got their big push.

London definitely benefited from their musical talents and the talents of many others. That symbiosis of shared experience between artist and crowd is more important than ever and so are London's live music venues for future generations. On which note these are our favourite live music venues in London.

Best for Live Music in Fitzrovia

100 Club

Best for Live Music in Covent Garden

The Porterhouse

The Porterhouse is one of the biggest bars in London and a great bar to try some craft stout and Irish whisky. They also have a late night basement bar which is a great venue to catch some live music in Covent Garden.

Best for Live Music in Soho

Ain't Nothin But Blues Bar

20 Kingly Street, Carnaby, London, W1B 5PZ

Famous for being a regular haunt of Amy Winehouse what this jazz bar lacks in size it makes up for in atmosphere. Another venue on our list located near to Carnaby Street.

Ronnie Scott's

Yes that jazz venue owned by the old guy from that band that has lips for a logo still rocks.

Pizza Express (Dean Street)

When you say you are heading to a concert at Pizza Express people not in the know may be perplexed but then they are not in the know.

Best for Classical Music

Royal Albert Hall

Other Live Music Venue in London

O2 Arena

With nearly 1.5 million ticket sales in 2017 the O2 arena became the number one live music venue in the world surpassing Madison Square Garden by some margin.

O2 Brixton Academy

If you have a favourite live music venue we haven't mentioned you have the chance to earn London points by telling us about it. You will also be helping make our London guide and London blog even better so we would love to hear from you.