Trying to get around England’s capital city without recourse to the London Underground, more commonly known as the tube, is an almost unplayable proposition. Many people don’t like to have to use it but common sense and convenience dictates that they should. One of the reasons some people approach a journey on it with disquiet is the possible sense of claustrophobia. In which case the Cahoots Underground bar may not be for them. As you can see from the image on the home page, one of the bar areas does a pretty passable impression of a tube carriage in the immediately post-Second World War era.

The notion is that this subterranean hangout was originally an air-raid shelter which was later transformed into the subsequently long-lost Kingly Court Underground station, just off Carnaby Street in the West End. This is likely an urban myth. Quite near to where I live is the long-abandoned York Road tube station, which was closed in 1932. In the (quite long) list of no longer in-use tube stations, Kingly Court doesn’t merit a mention. But I’m not here to try to spoil anyone’s party. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if the consumption of a few shots of a cocktail that goes by the name of ‘Kiss at the Station’ (cointreau, silver tequila, pineapple, chilli & tomato beer shrub and yuzu sherbert) might have the capability of ruining somebody’s next morning.

A few hundred yards to the west, swapping Soho for St James’s, we come across St Jacques Restaurant & Bar. This has a distinctly less raffish aura than Cahoots but its location is steeped in history, part of it genuinely deadly. Its outside dining terrace backs into Pickering Place, which is apparently the smallest square in Britain. Given its size, it has packed in quite a lot.

Pickering Place was the site of the embassy for the Republic of Texas before it became part of the United States in 1845. The courtyard still displays its original gaslights. What it no longer has, so far as we know, are the sort of things that used to take place there a couple of centuries ago; things like gambling dens (no need, of course, given the abundance of casinos in the London of today), bear-baiting and even the occasional duel. That brief history reminded me of the takeaway from the promotional literature for Cahoots. “A secret black-market adventure lies ahead, but you must promise to keep a tight lip, lest the coppers find out…”

Actually, I do think that if you hear of a duel in the offing, you really should inform the police.