Where to Pick Up Girls in: London, UK!

By JT Tran

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Every once in a while, I have to pinch myself so that I’ll remember to appreciate the situation that destiny has found fit to place me in and where I can pick up some of the most beautiful women in the world. One of these situations is the recent Fashion Week trip to London I recently took with the ABCs. Sure, it was a work trip, but my job isn’t all that bad.

In fact, there are a lot of times that I have even more fun working than I do when I’m not, which is why I always jump at the chance to travel with the ABCs team and teach men all over the world how to take control of their lives, picking up one girl at a time! I spent most of my down time dating this incredibly sexy 19 year old fashion model that I picked up in front of students during the London Fashion Week bootcamp. Talk about being my HB Teenage Dream!

Without any further ado, allow me to paint the picture of an historic city, bustling with the fire of youth but still retaining an age-old dignity that permeated throughout. A few things about London clubs:

  1. In order to get into virtually ANY bar or club in London, you’re going to have to shell out between £10 and £20 ($15- $30).
  2. This is just par for the course and if you expect it to be a night out at a swanky ultralounge or a hip top 40 club, it’s going to cost you even more.
  3. Thankfully, London has MANY guestlist services, which you can use to avoid the cover if showing up before a certain time.

For instance, when we went to Tiger Tiger to pick up girls, it was a £10 cover, but since I called ahead (like I always recommend doing), the lovely Alexa put me on the list, which allowed me to skip the line and pay no cover until 10pm. Logistics is always key and part of the E-Phase (Evaluate, Extract & Escalate)!

Lucky again, London starts EARLY and it is not uncommon for a club to be packed at 10pm (as opposed to New York City or Los Angeles, which barely gets going at midnight!). As a result, a lot of the clubs were already bumpin’ by the time we arrived and went well into the night. London, and many Commonwealth countries, have what you would call a Pub & Club Culture, where the majority of regular folk go out and get trashed at the cheaper pubs first and THEN go to the clubs where things are more expensive.

Now that we’ve made that clear, it’s time for Where to Pick Up Girls: London, UK!

Wednesday Night:

Movida (8 Argyll Street  London W1F 7TF): Some of the best nights in a major Tier 1 city are the weeknights. These are the nights that the most beautiful people come out: models, actresses, cocktail waitresses, dancers, strippers, hired guns, and celebrities. Think about it, they don’t want to go out on the same night as when the regular “Tunnel & Crowd” come out to play.

An underground club with an elongated dual section of dance floor and VIP tables, this place got PACKED with beautiful models and Playboy bunnies from the Playboy Club. Early on there was an insane amount of hotties, but as the night wore on, it became packed with financiers and suits with money. The most socializing to be had was actually upstairs at the smoking patio because downstairs was either too packed or too loud.

Dress to impress and schmooze the door people and promoters.

Thursday Night:

 

Metra Club & Bar (14 Leicester Square, Westminster, London WC2H7NG): Open every night at 8pm, Metra is right in Leicester square, inches away from several other hot restaurants and tourist spots and a great to pick up girls.

It’s one-level, underground place with a cover of £10 (about $15). There are barkers outside fairly often (kind of like club sales associates) that promise reduced-entry. They can always cut deals, so be sure to haggle with them. Medium-sized dancefloor and some booths roped off for all the table service / VIP blokes.

The first bar was right by the door (a good sign), but was crowded by an awkward dividing wall, which, thankfully, made it easier to hear the bartenders. The DJ booth overlooked the dancefloor and played a weird mix of top 40 and past top 40 hits (i.e. new Usher AND old Usher), while most of the guys leaned up against the dividing wall, watching the dancefloor.

A few small, restaurant-style tables were great for relaxing and getting more intimate with girls (as most of the couches were in the bottle service vein) and a stripper pole loomed ominously in the corner, beckoning the drunken party girls. Roped-off smoking area upstairs (EVERYONE smokes in London) was a good place to take soft-spoken girls, but opened right out onto the fairway of Leicester square, which can be very distracting at times.

Expensive drinks (as is standard in London) and a bland ratio (eventually nearly 5 guys for every 1 guy) makes this a bad place to develop the approach skills, but the guys that were there were particularly lame and had no game at all. Mixed sets and cold-approaches were a breeze and the women opened and hooked easily, despite being mostly 6s and 7s.

Friday Night:

 

Amika (65 High Street, Kensington, London W8 5SE): The closest to a Hollywood club we found, Amika has both a strict dresscode and a strict entry policy. A great place to pick up seriously beautiful girls, but the stakes and standards are higher.

This, essentially, means they can let anyone in that they want and, expectedly, charge whatever they want once you’re there. This is what we ran into. 21+ (mixed group, i.e. no groups of guys) and an expensive door cover. On the phone, I was told it would be £20 ($30), but later I discovered that they had charged everyone with a £50 ($75) club entry. They definitely were trying to milk us everywhich way  with more hidden fees than a mortgage consolidation.

The club is super swank, though, with 9s and 10s aplenty (none of the hired guns were less than a 9 and lots of them), on top of it. Again, the club was underground with a long hallway leading to three separate rooms (the hallway had couches AND mirrors in it), the first was the large dance floor lined with the DJ booth, tables, and a bar almost impossible to get to.

This is where the majority of the 10s were, as it was the most highly visible area with the most traffic, great for approaching and high-energy game. The room that we were in was lined with booths and much quieter, though still high-energy. A bar at the back and space to mingle in the rectangular room, this was the best place to game girls, as there were places to rest your drink, walls to lean a girl up against, and a less crowded populous.

The third room was laid out much like the second, but I was unable to get in (as we were relegated to the first two because of our table assignment). Much of the same went on in that room.

Saturday Night:

China White (4 Winsley Street  London W1W 8HF): This place is big! Go early and dress to impress with connections. There are multiple areas with different music to be had in each.

There’s a VIP area near the front and off to the side that’s great for isolation, but not so great for social proofing as it’s so off the beaten path. Stick to the main areas. Beware, this places gets very packed and loud and ballers with tables abound everywhere.

I’ve heard Friday night is also a great time.

Tiger Tiger (29 The Haymarket, London SW1Y 4SP): Though this bar got a bad rap from all the locals (Tiger Tiger is considered London’s pick up version of Saddle Ranch, in other words a PUA haven for practicing approaching women and picking them up), we had a blast. 18+ with a cover that could be avoided by calling ahead, the place was HUGE!

Doubling as a restaurant, which means it was open most of the night already and pre-populated by post-dinner drinkers, the door opens to the main bar with cathedral ceilings and a few tables to sit at. The restaurant is off to the right and a main stairway to the upstairs rooms to the left. Continuing straight through, there is a huge dance floor (VERY difficult to get through), as well as more dinner seating, perfect for isolating from the dance floor, just around the corner.

You can choose to go downstairs to the 70’s-themed club area with sparkly dance floor and bar, or you can go upstairs to the second level, which is similar to downstairs, but hotter and sweatier. A main bar and another, huge dance floor take up the majority of the upstairs, but walking through it (past several rest-station type tables and claimable booths) will lead you to an area filled with couches, chairs, coffee tables and another, smaller bar.

This is the area that is perfect for gaming and was filled with the 8s, 9s and, occasionally, 10s of the venue. While the rest of the bar had every type of girl from every spot on the spectrum, we found the classier, more elegant, and hotter women spent their time here. Average drinks for London (meaning expensive drinks for America), but well worth the price of admission purely for the range and amount of women. A definite stop on where to pick up girls tour!

Sunday Night:

O’Neill’s (33-37 Wardour Street, London, W1D 6PU): Typical British Pub (our idea of a bar that serves food) and a little weak on the pick up girls tour. Free to get into with a varying crowd of all ages (18-60+) and classes.

There were very few truly attractive women to pick up, but many wandering tourists staying at hostels nearby. The band upstairs played to a large area for loitering and a few seats, but generally too loud to run solid game, which is a good place to bounce girls to for a quick change of pace. Fairly empty for most of the night (as is expected everywhere on Sundays) and was very social-circle oriented most of the night.

Not a good place to run approaches, but a good place to gain a crowd of friends if your game is tight. Drinks were cheap and it’s a great place to have a warm Guiness, but the quality of women was low and the crowd was sparse. Many seats downstairs from individual bar seats, to booths, to long bench tables to share with others; great place to isolate or sit with a group.

Dress down, though, and don’t be afraid of mixed sets!

The Shaftesbury (39-45 Shaftsbury Avenue, London, W1D 6LA): Opens early and barkers give out stamps that will allow you to skip the cover (as well as having an email on their site).

Casual dress and inexpensive drinks, it was the only place busy in that neck of the woods that wasn’t a gay bar or a Chinese restaurant. A hallway opens to the corner of the bar, which extends into the room along the side and the large, cathedral-ceiling dance floor takes up most of the downstairs, save a few booths.

Upstairs was mostly claimable booths and was the best place to take a girl to sit, but was very loud. I had the best luck hanging out by the cigarette machine on the inside of the doorway just as you entered. It was quiet, isolated, and left plenty of space to lean back. The crowd was not desirable, however, though it seemed typical of a Sunday. The ratio was terrible and girls were seen actually coming in and leaving when enough guys made bad pick up attempts.

Mostly 6s and 7s with a few 8s and 9s that, ironically, were completely ignored by guys, proving once again, go for the girls you are attracted to!

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Sanderson Hotel (Purple Bar & Long Bar) (50 Berners Street, London W1T 3NG): Owned by the same group as the famed Mondrian hotel in Los Angeles (Sky Bar), this place represented the perfect atmosphere of relaxed lounging that one hopes for casual pick up.

Bar was filled with fashionable 8s and 9s, many of them being traveling models (Fashion Week!). The men were insufferable and most of our time was spent deflecting weak AMOGs and laughing about them with the girls we brought. VERY expensive drinks and appetizers. Inside included several high-tops with chairs and a huge line of seats at either side of the bar. Outside was restaurant-style seating that was a bit uncomfortable to perch at and was filled with smoke (always, in London).

In any case, outside was a fine place for isolation and would be a good place for practicing rapport-building.

CONCLUSION:

London was a blast and, overall, there was always a place to go. Check out these recommendations and then let the barkers drag you to whatever club they are promoting, as well.

  • Dress for the weather
  • Clubs love charging cover so prepare for the expense
  • AMOGs and cockblocks are about average
  • Every girl FROM London seems to hate London so being well-traveled and cosmopolitan is a definite plus
  • ALWAYS get an Oyster card!

There were so many other places that we went to that we didn’t even have the time to find out the names of because they rushed us in so quickly and we were suddenly in a swarming mass of people!

A great city filled with fun and beautiful people, I can’t wait to go back!

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