Forza Wine

Forza Wine sits on top of a multi-storey car park on Rye Lane in Peckham, on the same rooftop that the pop-up Frank’s Cafe made famous for its skyline views over more than a decade before Forza took the space over on a permanent footing, deliberately keeping the exposed, industrial character of the site rather than smoothing it into something more conventional and enclosed.

The list is built around a compact, seasonally aware selection of natural and lesser-known wines, chosen and rotated more often than a typical bar list, backed up by a short menu of Italian-leaning small plates designed to be shared rather than to form a full sit-down meal, snacks that suit the standing-room, drinks-first atmosphere of the space rather than a lengthy dinner. Cheese, cured meats and simple crostini make up most of the food menu, kept deliberately small so the wine list stays the main focus.

The view is the real draw here above almost everything else: south London’s low-rise sprawl gives way to a genuinely wide skyline from up on this car park roof, best experienced at golden hour with a glass of something well chosen, and it remains one of the few rooftop spots in London that feels more like a locals’ find than a hotel bar dressed up specifically for tourists and visitors.

A second branch operates on the South Bank at the National Theatre, on a terrace overlooking the Thames that has picked up its own following, including a Time Out number one ranking for London rooftop bars, giving the format a very different, more central and more polished setting than the original Peckham site. Both branches share the same short, rotating wine list, though the National Theatre terrace draws a more theatre-going, pre-show crowd than the Peckham original.

The honest caveat: the Peckham rooftop is fully exposed to the weather with no lift, meaning stairs up a working car park in all conditions including rain, seating is limited and goes fast on a warm evening, and a handful of reviewers have flagged inconsistent food and noticeably slower service when the venue is running at full capacity on a busy night.