‘It’s high time we learned to embrace the thing so much of the world knows us for’: The ultimate guide to London in the rain, from the best cosy pubs and restaurants to spas, saunas and cinemas, and what to wear

To be clear, I’m not mad. I love London in the sun — the early rays of spring, that first rush to the beer garden, those sultry golden evenings. Unbeatable stuff. But I simply cannot countenance being a fair-weather fan of this fine city. It is, for me, a place to cherish come rain or shine. And given there’s plenty of rain (although, statistically, much less than you’d think) it’s high time we learned to embrace the thing so much of the world knows us for.

On the topic of romantic rain in London, who can forget the classic denouement-in-a-deluge to Four Weddings and a Funeral filmed on Highbury Terrace (outside number 22 if you were wondering) which made the phrase ‘Is it still raining? I hadn’t noticed’ a classic. Despite Andie MacDowell’s questionable line read, it showed the great London downpour to be something of charm rather than chagrin.

Long before that, in 1970, USA-born jazz singer Blossom Dearie was enamoured enough to write a whole song about the charm of our drizzly city, aptly titled ‘I Like London In The Rain’ in which she trills:

‘I like London in the rain

Wet umbrellas in the rain

The other couples arm in arm

London drizzle has its charm

Winds are blowingLights are glowingFalling rain

I like London in the rain

Streets like mirrors in the rain

Turn the city upside down

Liquid pictures of the town’

In fact, the festive season really reaffirms Dearie’s point. As I write, I can see street lamps reflected along the pavement’s sheen like a Saul Leiter photograph come to twinkling life. Take an evening taxi ride through town at this time of year — after a couple of martinis, preferably — and the raindrop smeared windows make the whole scene look like you’re drifting through some multi-coloured cosmos. People do cling to each other as they stroll down the street. Children splash in puddles. Dog-walkers huddle under trees. It’s all very alluring. In film-making they deliberately hose down the streets on a set to create more textural, reflective backdrops — a ‘wet down’ they call it. Currently we get one almost daily and I am, as they say, here for it. Let me tell you why…

The best cosy pubs and restaurants

We’ll start with the obvious attraction of a rainy day: the excuse to duck in somewhere warm to ‘wait for it to stop’. This is what pubs are for — and we have an embarrassment of riches in that department.

On a drizzly day, I have a particular affinity for the bay window that overhangs the River Thames at the Captain Kidd in Wapping. It’s piratic and ancient and, as raindrops trickle down the glass and the river roils below, it feels like a timeless shelter. More centrally, the newly spruced Shaston Arms in Soho is compact and comforting (especially if you order the beer-battered onion rings with whipped cod’s roe), and nearby the charming Old Coffee House has a roaring fire to warm up beside. In Fitzrovia, the bijou Newman Arms has a suitably heartening upstairs pie room, and the Lore of the Land has the cosy interiors and filling fare of a country inn.

Restaurants too provide respite. Rules’s winter garden will spirit you away to more tropical climes — in decor at least. After a wet walk in Richmond Park a retreat to Petersham Nurseries can’t be bettered. If a weekend jaunt around Mayfair’s shops is interrupted by showers, navigate to Il Gattopardo for a well-priced (for Mayfair) Italian feast. And if you’ve really been soaked through, embrace the current crop of fiery Thai restaurants heating up the London scene: Khao Bird in Borough Market, Platapian in Soho, Speedboat Bar on Portobello Road, Farang in Highbury, and Som Saa in Spitalfields will ward off any chills.

The best places to hunker down in

It can be easy to take it for granted that most of our best museums and galleries are absolutely free, but not when you get caught in a shower. You’ll be grateful for the likes of Bermondsey’s White Cube: once a swimming pool, now thankfully much drier and just the right size for a sub-one hour browse. Or the Barbican, which assumes peak Brutalist form in the rain. You can admire some less dishevelled figures at the National Portrait Gallery. Mayfair is awash with galleries to dash into. The Horniman Museum is lovably eclectic and has a skyline-surveying outdoor bandstand to admire the city from. Come for the shelter, stay for the cultural enrichment basically.

There are also rain-enforced retail breaks; a little pit-stop to ‘look for presents’ or so you claim. There are some comforting options here: the charming Victoriana of Burlington Arcade, the well-curated wooden maze of Liberty, Assouline’s bookshop-with-a-bar on Piccadilly, the heady scents of Perfumer H on Chiltern Street, and the tactile delights of Tekla’s new Marylebone High Street flagship (where you can pick up an oh-so-soft towel if you’ve really been caught out) to name but a few.

The best spas and saunas

If an unexpected rainstorm has you wishing to warm up and wind down then a spot of pampering could, quite fairly, be in order.

From a South Bank stroll, the sleek subterranean Agua spa at the Sea Containers is an easy escape route. Designed by Tom Dixon to feel like a space-age cocoon, it offers a range of massages, signature facials and a cryo body treatment designed to soothe weary legs. At the Corinthia, there are four whole floors devoted to spa soothing, including a dedicated thermal floor housing a mosaic-tiled steam room and an impressive amphitheatre sauna, two pools and a marble ice fountain for cooling down. The Newman hotel in Fitzrovia opens its doors this year and also sports a rather impressive Nordic-inspired subterranean spa, as well as a penthouse with a skyline-view sauna. For more sauna-ing with a view, the jetty at the front of Battersea Power Station is home to Drip until the end of January; three classic wooden saunas and three ice baths looking over the Thames and the iconic power station itself.

The best outdoor swim spots

Swimming in the rain is one of life’s great pleasures, actually. (See also: a hot tub in the snow). So embrace the weather and take an outdoor dip. You’ll find some gems out in the suburbs: between Bushy Park and the river is Hampton Pool, blissfully heated at this time of year, and in south-east London, Beckenham Place Park offers a wilder experience in its specially created swimming lake. More centrally you have the Art Deco charms of Parliament Hill Lido, and Herne Hill’s Brockwell Lido now has a few sauna pods to warm up in after a drizzly dip.

On a related note, a boat-ride in the rain can be similarly bracing — take a Thames Clipper down to Greenwich and brave the outdoor deck for a more refreshing commute.

The best cinemas

Perhaps not as visceral as a swim, but a spontaneous weather-enforced cinema trip is a pleasure nonetheless. And the idyll is one with sumptuous sofa seating, a decent snack selection, and a bar if possible. Islington’s Screen on the Green, the Electric in Notting Hill, Picturehouse Central on Shaftesbury Avenue, and the Curzon Mayfair tick all those boxes. Plus there’s the BFI, the National Theatre and the rest of the South Bank Centre offering riverside respite from the rain with all manner of year-round cultural programming.

The best late night bars and jazz spots

If late-night London in the rain needed a soundtrack, jazz would be a good starting point. In Soho, Ronnie’s in the rain is a classic — its neon sign luring you from damp streets into that iconic room that’s hosted everyone from Miles Davis to Nina Simone to Sonny Rollins to Prince to, yes, Blossom Dearie. Down at Vauxhall riverside’s brick-built bastion, Brunswick House, a charming candlelit basement bar has sprung to life with live jazz every Tuesday should it get a bit bleak above ground.

If you can swing entry to Camden’s House of Koko, Ellen’s does a fine line in jazz and blues each week. Or swap soundtracks entirely and dry yourself off at a packed hoedown at the Fat Badger, Notting Hill’s most in-demand late-night hideaway with its curiously effective country-and-western house band.

What to wear

Ah, now this is the fun part. Of course, if you’re really caught unawares, rain can be a day-ruiner. But right now it’s to be expected so kit yourself out accordingly.

A sturdy, wood-handled umbrella by heritage makers Swaine is a most useful accessory all winter long. Or, if you prefer to keep your hands free, opt for a tried and tested waterproof-jacket-and-hat combo. Waxed versions of both from Barbour need little introduction. (Mulberry even has a waxed backpack to keep your essentials reassuringly dry).

For women who prefer something less technical and more elegant, Belgravia-based brand The Fold have more elegant water-repellent macs and trenches perfect for this time of year. Staying with the trenchcoat, Burberry’s classic is classic for a reason and is enjoying another reboot under Daniel Lee’s current stewardship. Chanel even have a fun logo-reveal version, the unmistakable interlocked Cs only appearing once the coat gets wet.

As for footwear, Hunter’s chic ankle wellies and Hermes’s iconic jumping boots will never let you down, or for an edgier take, Doc Martens now make rain boots too.

Keep your four-legged companion dry with a waterproof dog jacket from Le Chameau.