Shaftesbury Avenue, a dangerous road. Not knives or muggings. It is a threshold, the debaucherous parameter. Cross it and Soho’s raucous streets await. Norman’s, the first corrupting port of call. The French. Gerry’s, the final boss. Should you stay on side, there is a gentler world, one with Le Beaujolais, the best wine bar in London. Or, newly but not for the first time, Below Stone Nest, a late-night bar but one that happily suits calmer evenings. Growth.
Below Stone Nest is the work of the Boxer brothers, Frank and Jackson, who have pedigree when it comes to drinks and picky bits. It reopened this month after a while away, with its distressed walls and fuzzy candles, a basement space beneath an old Welsh chapel. It is sultry and Victorian, well suited to Halloween.
