Cancel

    Open app

    Search

    The Library at County Hall

    4.0 (21 reviews)
    Closed • 2:00 pm - 8:00 PM

    The Library at County Hall Photos

    THE LIBRARY AT COUNTY HALL ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?

    Recommended Reviews - The Library at County Hall

    Your trust is our priority, so businesses can't pay to alter or remove their reviews. Learn more about reviews.
    Yelp app icon
    Browse more easily on the app
    Review Feed Illustration

    Reviews With Photos

    Sherri Z.

    5 stars for the view, 4 stars for the tea. The location is perfect with stunning views of Big Ben over the Thames. The tea itself was pretty good with a big assortment of sandwiches and desserts (and a cake shaped like Big Ben!) the tea selection comes in little glass jars you can smell, and both the County Hall mix and earl grey tasted yummy. The service was pretty quick and friendly.

    Sasha K.

    An afternoon tea in London couldn't be more picturesque than dining at the library at county hall. Lay your eyes on the picture perfect views of Big Ben himself and the stunning London eye to boot. The service is friendly and very accommodating with tea and sandwich top offs. The desserts are so unique with a chocolate mousse shaped like Big Ben. You get the classic tea sandwiches (egg salad, coronation chicken, smoked salmon and cucumber cream cheese) and they supply a tartlet as well with a crispy shell and creamy caramelized onion inside. Typically I prefer plain scones as I like enjoying the flavours of clotted creams and specific jams they provide but this place has a sweet basil and another one with golden raisins. The scones taste nice but could feel a bit much for a non sweet tooth.

    Lovely view with afternoon tea.
    Merrill O.

    Ambiance.... Lovely. View.... Pretty. Afternoon Tea...Mediocre, At Best. Service.... Lackluster. There are much better places in London for afternoon tea. I recommend you try those.

    Henry's T.

    There is so much rich history to enjoy whilst in London, and there are also many places to enjoy breakfast, but wouldn't it be great if you could enjoy both simultaneously? Well, we discovered that you actually can. "The Library" is located within the London Marriott Hotel County Hall and provides an experience we're not exactly sure you can find elsewhere. This historic building housed the local London government (London County Council) for 64 years (1922-1986). Anyone wanna venture a guess as to what was housed in the space currently occupied by this restaurant? (And with a singular and rousing voice all present responded in unison: a library!) Correct lads and lassies! The bookshelves remain filled with books from that era which the elected representatives would (hopefully) consult during their tenure as public servants. Since we've already established that the atmosphere here is amazing, we should also have a chat about the food and the service. I attempted, but failed, to eat literally everything on the menu and I've included as many pics of the meal options as possible. Everything I had was splendid and I was impressed with not only the food quality, but also the plethora of Vegan options. In addition, every server we interacted with was nothing short of wonderful (our favorite though was Felicia ). As you may have already gathered, we enjoyed breakfast here A LOT during our visit. Suffice it to say that we got to know the service team well enough that hugs were exchanged on several occasions during the fortnight. I'd give "The Library" my highest recommendation. And that's...Henry's Take. #londonbreakfast #historiclondon

    Demond S.

    What does a Library and a Restaurant have in common? To answer that question, one must visit The Library at London County Hall. The Library, is located within the Marriott at London County Hall. This restaurant Library appearance and charm is fascinating. They offer a fixed menu but the options vary enough to allow you to enjoy different English style breakfast options. I ordered the traditional English style breakfast: egg, sausage, toast, potato, and tomato slice. It looked and tasted like a proper English breakfast. The sausage had the most flavor of the items on the plate. Service was a bit slow as there appeared to be only 2 servers, doubling as host as well. Overall, the experience was good. The views outside to the river and other historical landmarks were enjoyable. Will definitely visit again.

    Ashleigh S.

    This was such a beautiful experience. The ambiance alone is enough to draw me into this place, it's the cutest library setting with an amazing view of Big Ben. A reservation is highly recommended, they were able to squeeze us in the day of and I was very grateful of that!. We did the bottomless Prosecco with afternoon tea package and it was the greatest experience I could've had while visiting London. Every single thing was delicious and the tea selection was nice and large. Definitely keep this place in mind if you want a luxurious tea experience!

    Uma P.

    cool spot for afternoon tea. amazing views! excellent and amazing service! you can get tea or coffee so if you don't live tea it's fine but their coffee is just okay, i recommend tea. each person gets sandwiches and desserts of a variety, which were good. i didn't love them all but most were yummy! excellent presentation. the books are real! sit near the window. great for groups or a cute date. it is a little pricey...but what isn't in london. located in a very touristy area as well (in a hotel). but again, we got seated quickly, great ambiance and service and excellent views. it is touristy

    Sandwich spread
    Heath F.

    Top notch! This was the first place my wife and I visited when we got to London. We read on Yelp that the afternoon tea was really good here and we were not disappointed! Gareth met us at our table and recommended a tea unique to The Library and it was out of this world! The scones and accompanying condiments were next level (especially the clotted cream and truffle cream cheese )! The desserts were (the strawberry and basil cheesecake clock face was my favorite! The sandwiches were good, not my favorite things on them, so not truly fair to judge them too harshly (the Mature Cheddar Ploughman's was the best of the five, for me). Overall, outstanding food, service and views of the Thames and London Eye. We enjoyed every minute of our experience!

    Enjoyed a very nice tea at the Library at County Hall. The service was excellent. There were many different loose teas to try and a tiered plate of finger sandwiches, scones, and desserts. It was worth the experience. The view was amazing and the setting was beautiful old library.

    Desserts
    Anna L.

    Honestly this place was a mixed bag. It's very pricey and even though my new fiancé and I were celebrating, they almost forgot about us. We got the afternoon tea with champagne and they only poured one glass and forgot about us. All the tables around us had many glasses, but they didn't for ours. Made it not worth it for the additional price. It honestly wasn't great and we left when we could. They were nice with accommodating for dietary restrictions, but would not come again. We were younger than the rest of the crowd there, so maybe that's why. Just made us both very uncomfortable.

    Full spread of afternoon tea

    See all

    2 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0
    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    9 months ago

    Helpful 2
    Thanks 0
    Love this 2
    Oh no 0

    9 months ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 3
    Oh no 0

    2 years ago

    Helpful 2
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 1

    3 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    10 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    2 years ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 2
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    4 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    4 years ago

    Helpful 7
    Thanks 0
    Love this 6
    Oh no 0

    4 years ago

    Helpful 2
    Thanks 1
    Love this 2
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Uma P.
    126
    900
    2131

    4 years ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 1
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    3 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    2 years ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 1
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    4 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Anna L.
    321
    64
    7

    4 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 1
    Love this 0
    Oh no 1

    3 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    3 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    3 years ago

    Delicious food and tea. The environment is elegant with a beautiful view of London. Highly recommend.

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0
    Photo of K E.
    0
    66
    40

    4 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    7 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    Review Highlights - The Library at County Hall

    “The ambiance alone is enough to draw me into this place, it's the cutest library setting with an amazing view of Big Ben.”

    Mentioned in 5 reviews

    Read more highlights

    Verify this business for free

    People searched for British 4,037 times last month within 15 miles of this business.

    Verify this business

    The Ivy - Squid

    The Ivy

    4.3(79 reviews)
    0.8 mi•Westminster
    •££

    Wow, what a great spot in London! The Ivy has been around since 1917 and is in walking distance…read morefrom Westminster Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, and Big Ben! The restaurant itself is decorated with a classy-whimsical taste, that feels fun and regal at the same time. If you come, ask to be seated in the parlor terrace area. Rose colored decor mixed with marble. Very cool. The staff is extremely professional, dressed in green sport jackets and very attentive. They bring the food out fast! But it's anything but fast food. I had the absolute gorgeous Massaman Duck Curry. It was mouth watering with tons of flavor. I will be craving this for some time. For desert, I had the sticky toffee pudding which was delightful. Highly recommend The Ivy if you're in central London.

    The most expensive dinner we had this week with the weakest hospitality and worst timing. SUPER…read moredisappointing. It took 25 mins to place our drink order- then about 30 more mins to get our food, after placing that order. Then we had to wait to place a dessert order. Then we had to wait for the check. One word for this comes to mind...'waiting'. We found ourselves waiting every step of the way for our waiter to acknowledge us. Honestly I can forgive A LOT if people are nice but that wasn't the case with our server. Low energy, not very warm and welcoming and slow. Actually to be fair, I got a smile from the busboy when I was on my way to the restroom- perhaps the 2 should switch roles if the restaurant is looking for repeat visits or nice reviews. Btw- the manager...not exactly sure what he was doing. One last thing, I've had sea bass in many restaurants and never had anyone leave the skin on-Just not what I expected. This restaurant gets 2 thumbs down for me. Go to Bills right around the corner - save some money - and get a smile from the staff and a nice greeting.

    Photos
    The Ivy - Upstairs bar

    Upstairs bar

    The Ivy
    The Ivy - Private dining room

    See all

    Private dining room

    Duchy Arms - The gravy was delicious!

    Duchy Arms

    4.7(17 reviews)
    0.9 mi•Vauxhall, Southwark

    The energy and enthusiasm of the owner is only second to the amazing food and perfect wine list. We…read morehad a Sunday roast with our picky eater kids. They do have children's portions of each of the meats. We all loved it. It was hard to choose a favorite between the pork belly which could be cut with a fork and the top beef. Both were to die for. The gravy was absolute heaven. I cannot imagine a better Sunday roast. Highly recommend.

    After a week long trip in London, there was only 1 thing more that we had to do that we hadn't…read moreyet... GET FISH AND CHIPS. We searched everywhere on Yelp to see if we could find somewhere that had some good Pescatarian goodness. Luckily we found that the Duchy Arms was only a mile away. We decided to hike over there and got there at about 5:45, we were dismayed when we found that they were not serving food for another 15 minutes so you know what we did? We drank! They had some great deals and we were able throw down a bit before they were ready to indulge us. I had the Haddock Fish and Chips and it was BANGING. The fish was crunchy but juicy and the chips were crispy. The tartar sauce was very good as well. Definitely would come back to this spot again to try if I am back in London.

    Photos
    Duchy Arms - Front dining area

    Front dining area

    Duchy Arms - The Sunday Roast gravy was sooo delicious I had to order another side of it. Yummmm.

    The Sunday Roast gravy was sooo delicious I had to order another side of it. Yummmm.

    Duchy Arms - They sadly sold out of the Sunday Roast Herb Beef so I got the chicken and my uncle got pork belly. It was all SO GOOD!

    See all

    They sadly sold out of the Sunday Roast Herb Beef so I got the chicken and my uncle got pork belly. It was all SO GOOD!

    The Crooked Well - Private Dining Room with own bar

    The Crooked Well

    4.2(24 reviews)
    2.4 mi•Camberwell
    •££

    We found the crooked well through bridebook.com, this is how we contacted them (more on this…read morelater). Absolutely awful experience from top start to finish. In retrospect, alarm bells should have been ringing when on our first meeting Dann ( the manager) not only completely forgot we had a meeting booked in but also said "I can't imagine why anyone would want to get married". We then proceeded to tell him what we wanted, he agreed to everything including our proposal of a hot buffet meal for our guests with pre-bought bottles of wine to be placed on the tables for our guests to serve themselves. He assured us The Crooked Well could provide any type of food we wanted .We went over what we wanted to spend and agreed a minimum spend at the bar. We have never organised a wedding before, so in hindsight we should really have cottoned on to how blasé and wishy washy he was being with details, but we took him on his word for everything and continued to plan our wedding, safe in the knowledge we had our reception venue sorted. Email correspondence was like getting blood out of a stone. It would usually take at least a week for an email response and sometimes we would get no response at all. We were starting to get worried so asked for another meeting and asked to meet with the chef also to discuss our buffet menu. Upon meeting Dann and the Chef*, we outlined what we wanted on the buffet before the Chef told us that the Crooked Well did not have the facilities to provide a buffet service and that the only option was a sit down meal. We had not wanted a sit down meal. We had wanted a Mediterranean style buffet, but we found ourselves reluctantly agreeing to a sit down meal of contemporary British food, at a considerably larger price per head than agreed initially. It was here we really started to worry as it became evident at this moment that Dann, not only didn't know what a buffet was but also knew he had really messed up. Instead of apologising to us and trying to fix things he sloped off into the background, sulking and embarrassed More frustrating email communication followed before we decided that we needed our minds put at ease, then Dann started trying to change the terms of our verbal agreement. He suddenly started saying that the minimum spend for the night now didn't actually include what our guests spent at the bar and that we had to spend that before the reception had even started. He also now wanted to include a 12.5% service charge on the wine placed on the tables , which guests would quite literally be serving to themselves. He then started trying to make out he was being generous by not charging a cakeage fee for our guests to have cake on paper napkins, cut by us, despite not one even mentioning such a fee. We started to think he was trying to push us into cancelling as he was obviously in way over his head. so drafted a very professional e-mail highlighting all of the questions we really needed answering as definite. We had no contract, so we really needed some of this info in writing. All of the questions were completely ignored and we received a response that essentially said "look, we don't really have the facilities for the level of service you want, if you want to cancel that's fine". We responded and pointed out all of the services listed on bridebook.com (how we contacted them), and we got a response of "oh, we don't use bridebook anymore contact them if you have a problem with the information, it's not our fault" We contacted bridebook. Not only did they inform us that all information is provided by the Crooked well, but it also needs to be reviewed yearly when their annual (fee paid) subscription is renewed. This information is all entirely incorrect and this is entirely the fault of The Crooked Well. They have offered absolutely no apology whatsoever for the 6 months wasted on them, the hundreds of pounds wasted on a DJ booked for the venue, invitations printed and travel and hotels booked. We decided that even with 3 months until our wedding, it was better to start from scratch and find a new venue that continue with this farce. I cannot put into words how truly awful it was trying to deal with The Crooked Well, I personally would avoid this place and go somewhere else. *I have referred to the Chef simply as 'Chef' as I do not wish to sully his name and reputation, and we wish him every success with wherever his business takes him in the future, none of this was his fault.

    The Crooked Well is all things a brilliant gastropub should be... and then some…read more Featuring a grand open space with a proper pub bar/lounge area -and- an adjacent offset dining room, mouthwatering food, plus a respectable classic cocktail program, this establishment screams, 'Come south of the river!' to me. Our soup of the day starter, made with cauliflower, was much less impressive than I'd expected, especially after having a friend's homemade version very recently that was much more flavourful. However, the smoked salmon dish was every bit a satisfying and savoury way to launch into a meal. ... and what a meal it was! We hemmed and hawed over the roast lamb for two or the rabbit and bacon pie for two and were swayed by our server's recommendation for the pie. (Plus, it was absurdly frigid outside, which just begs for carbohydrate abuse.) Eventually, a pie the size of my head came out, along with the crispy kale and creamy mash sides we ordered. Take a gander at the photo. I think I need say no more. Not to be outdone, the boy let me have my dessert of choice: a massive cheese plate, featuring a brilliant shaved bleu, a Lancashire bomb, and a creamy thymed goats cheese. Kitty (I assume that's our server's name, since that's what was printed on our receipt) was thoughtful enough to offer us some extra crackers, which we made good use of. Along with our meal, I partook liberally of the libations offered by the bomb bartender. My Vieux Carré was easily as good as I could have come up with at home, and the Sazerac that followed kept me mostly warm on our way to the bus stop, a few minutes away. I will note that I found the Sazerac to be unusually heavy on the absinthe, both on the nose and on the palate, but not unpleasant by any means. I did inquire whether or not this joint was frequently mostly by locals, or if it was a destination for dining, to which Kitty replied that it was a solid mix of both. Apparently in the seven months (only!) since they've been in operation, their name has quite rapidly spread. Ergo, my final recommendation: get in here whilst you can. A booking during prime dining hours is a good idea, though we were readily able to snag a table for two around 1930 on a Thursday. The remaining seats rapidly filled up. Have yourself a cocktail, and settle in for a hearty feast.

    Photos
    The Crooked Well
    The Crooked Well
    The Crooked Well

    See all

    The Black Dog

    The Black Dog

    4.2(56 reviews)
    0.9 mi•Vauxhall, Southwark
    •££

    The fish and chips is excellent (the chips are possibly the best O've ever had) and the service is…read moregood... it can get a little loud, sometimes, but overall a good place to eat. Do be aware that the kitchen closes early sometimes.

    My girlfriend and I ended up at The Black Dog mostly because we are Swifties, so yes, there was a…read morebit of fandom motivation going in. That said, once you set that aside, it is actually a pretty nice spot. We both went with the Sunday roast. I had the lamb and she had the chicken, and both were genuinely good. Solid portions, well cooked, and exactly what you would hope for from a classic London pub meal. The beer was also a win, no complaints there. Service was where things got a little uneven. It felt like our server might have been new and pretty nervous, which happens, but it did mean we often had to flag down other staff just to get basic things. Not terrible, just a bit disjointed. Cocktails were the biggest miss. I ordered an old fashioned and it felt half finished. It was basically whiskey, a couple sad ice cubes, and what might have been a splash of simple syrup. Maybe that is just a different interpretation in England, but it definitely was not what I expected. My girlfriend raved about the sticky toffee pudding however. Overall though, we did enjoy it. The atmosphere is fun, the food is good, and the little merch stand is a nice touch, especially if you are there for the same reason we were. Not perfect, but still worth a visit.

    Photos
    The Black Dog
    The Black Dog
    The Black Dog - Veggie side

    See all

    Veggie side

    The Library at County Hall - british - Updated October 2026

    Loading...
    Loading...
    Loading...