The Audley

The Audley reopened in 2022 after a lengthy restoration by Artfarm, the hospitality group behind several of Mayfair’s higher profile relaunches in recent years, and the work involved six French polishers spending eight weeks bringing the original Victorian interior back to life rather than stripping it out for something new.

Phyllida Barlow’s kaleidoscope ceiling installation is the piece most written about, hanging above a bar and dining room that otherwise stick closely to the pub’s listed original features, including a striking ceiling clock carved with the Audley name that predates the current owners by well over a century.

The menu covers smart bar snacks and British pub classics rather than a full separate restaurant offering, served across dark wood interiors and leather booths that feel closer to a private members’ room than a straightforward corner local most people would recognise as a pub.

Drinks and food are priced well above what the word pub usually implies, which is a fair trade for some given the setting and the rotating artwork on the walls, but a genuine surprise for anyone expecting Mayfair’s more modest pub pricing rather than restaurant level pricing dressed in pub clothing.

For a drink surrounded by serious contemporary art in a genuinely and carefully restored room, it delivers something few other pubs in London attempt, even if the bill at the end of the night reads more like a restaurant tab.

The Mount Street setting places it among some of Mayfair’s most expensive shopfronts and members’ clubs, which shapes both the crowd and the pricing more than the pub format itself would elsewhere in London. Casual visitors popping in expecting a traditional cheap pint should recalibrate expectations before ordering, since this is closer in spirit and cost to the smart hotel bars nearby than to a typical London local, however faithfully the original fittings have been preserved. Booking ahead for the dining room is sensible on weekday lunchtimes, when nearby offices and galleries send a steady stream of regulars who already know to reserve rather than rely on finding a free table on arrival. The pub does not offer overnight rooms or any accommodation despite the scale of the restoration, so it functions purely as a place to eat and drink rather than a boutique inn, which is worth knowing given how residential and hotel like parts of the interior are made to feel.