The Parlour

Should You Book The Parlour?

If you are weighing up drinks options in Canary Wharf, The Parlour at 40 Canada Square sits at the more considered end of what this business district offers — a step up from a generic hotel bar or chain pub, without asking you to travel into Shoreditch or Soho to find a proper drink. For first-timers to the area, that positioning matters: most of the bars within walking distance of Canada Square are built for speed and volume. The Parlour is not.

The Space

The address — 40 Canada Square, right in the heart of Canary Wharf's office core, tells you most of what you need to know about the physical context. Expect a room designed around the after-work and client-entertaining crowd: contained, relatively quiet compared to the street-level venues nearby, and suited to conversation. The layout lends itself to small groups of two to four rather than large parties. If you are visiting for the first time and want a seat without stress, aim to arrive before the post-market rush, typically before 6 PM on weekdays. The spatial experience here is about containment and calm rather than spectacle or theatre.

What to Expect on a First Visit

The Parlour offers drinks and light refreshments, which in practice means this is the right call for a post-meeting drink, a working lunch with something light on the side, or a low-key early evening stop. It is not the venue for a full dinner or a late-night session. No awards data is attached to the bar at this point, so approach it as a reliable neighbourhood-of-sorts option for Canary Wharf rather than a destination you would cross the city for. Booking difficulty is low, walk-ins are generally direct, which is useful if your schedule is unpredictable, as tends to be the case in E14.

Value Per Round

Specific pricing is not confirmed in Pearl's data at this time, so treat any figure you see elsewhere as provisional. What is fair to say is that Canary Wharf venues tend to price at a London Zone 1 premium, comparable to what you would pay at a City bar rather than an East London neighbourhood spot. For the format on offer (drinks and light refreshments in a calm, well-located room), the value equation hinges on convenience: if you are already in E14, The Parlour earns its price point. If you are travelling specifically for the drinks programme, the cost-to-experience ratio shifts, and venues like 69 Colebrooke Row or A Bar with Shapes for a Name would offer more verifiable quality at a similar or lower spend.

Practical Details

The Parlour is at 40 Canada Square, London E14 5FW, well-served by Canary Wharf station on the Jubilee Line and the Elizabeth line. Walk-in access is the expected mode here; reservations are unlikely to be necessary for most visits. For a broader picture of where to drink in London, see our full London bars guide. If your plans extend to dinner or a hotel in the area, our full London restaurants guide and our full London hotels guide are worth consulting. Those planning wider London exploration can also browse our London wineries guide and our London experiences guide.

Further afield, if you are comparing the format to other relaxed bar concepts, it is worth looking at what venues like Amaro and Academy are doing in London, or even how different the brief is at something like Bar Shrimp in Manchester, The Snug in Binfield, or Bar Leather Apron in Honolulu for context on how the format plays in other cities.