Freedom Bar

Best on Thursday nights when there’s no cover, free coat check, and all night happy hour deals. The staff has always been extremely friendly and the mixed crowd creates a great atmosphere. Not to mention the poles in the basement are so fun for nights with friends!

To call this an alternative night out would be an understatement.
Went here just before Christmas to celebrate my 11yr cancer birthday, oooh how the years go by my friends. Starting upstairs the table service and solid fizz/​cocktail menu along with tasty bar snacks made for a good start to the evening. Well priced prosecco and calamari, I mean what more can you ask for really.
Around 11pm we headed downstairs for the highly entertaining cabaret show, there was a part of the show which involved 4 contestants getting up on stage, my friends being the sods that they are had stitched me right up and I was one of them, what happened next was erm funny — if you follow me on instagram there is a video clip… the staff were a great laugh, engaging & entertaining.
Not a spot I would usually frequent but one hell of a good laugh.

The lychee and porn star martinis are my drinks in this place. Been to a few birthdays here as well and the nibbles are good too. Staff are always pretty, dressed well and organised. Love downstairs for the deco, dance floor and the pole :)
Slightly over priced but all worth the experience.

Went here recently for cocktails with a friend who was leaving London after not having visited the bar for years.
The cocktails were great but the service slow and a little pretentious at times. As was the silly reserved table situation were we were constantly moved on from table to table.
Situated on the edge of Wardour St so right in the heart of Soho.

Today it smells like the toilets have exploded!
But apart from that the drinks are standard and the cocktail deals they do are pretty decent especially the ones that last till 3am
Come here mainly for the Kinky Kabaret. Great night with great singing and dancing

Fun club for a dance and the bartenders are gorgeous. Unfortunately ours was not the brightest and gave me a rum and water when I ordered a rum and coke (do people even drink that?). However another barman sorted it for me, so no love lost.
Warning, it’s reaaally busy on a Saturday night, and you’ll have to queue for the bar.

Wow! This place is so much fun! Dancing in the basement which has mirrorballs on the ceiling and pole to dance around. And everyone going for it. Getting «Dirty» with Christina or giving their all to «Lady Marmalade». Do your best to strut, wiggle and give attitude with the best of them. And shame on you if you don’t know the song words!
Great place to party!

Tried to get into Archer Street but it was full and the doormen sent us here instead. I was pretty underwhelmed, except by the drinks prices which were overwhelming! Sounds like the place has paid the price for trying to go from gay bar to «metrosexual». Doesn’t mean they should make the punters pay the price at the bar too!
Downstairs is now just a dated looking kitschy basement which would be alright for laugh if it wasn’t for the appalling pounding DJ. There must be far better places in Soho than this. I shall report back…

Sometimes you just know exactly what you’re in the mood for — something a little bit decadent but at half price. So when I’m feeling this, I pick up a friend (as in I call one, not I abduct just anyone off the street!) and go to Freedom. Happy hour gives half price cocktails and a Pornstar Martini is an absolutely genius idea. It tastes a bit like a Solero (a favourite ice lolly of mine, ah memories!) — passion fruit martini served with a side shot of Prosecco.
Now after drinking a few dozen of these in my time I finally realised how you’re meant to drink this interesting little concoction. Apparently you should sip both at the same time to let the flavours intermingle on your tongue. Well me and my friends are just not that sophisticated obviously — we necked the shot straight off (of course!) and then went ahead with the cocktail like it was fruit juice. No wonder work always seems fuzzy the next day ;)
If you’re up for more of a night out, pop along to their basement room, complete with a ceiling of mirror balls, poles for dancing around (because after some drinks aren’t don’t we all assume we’re the best dancers ever seen?!) and if you’re lucky a bit of karaōke or cabaret. That is a treat indeed!

this place does half price cocktail til 8pm on week nights! fantastic deal! I had a couple of the mocktails and they were great!

A great venue and some interesting quirks! Especially the cocktail menu and the mirror balls downstairs.
(Not wheelchair accessible)

Freedom bar would be an awesome place if it wasn’t for it’s rude staff and overpriced drinks.
The bar itself is lovely. Upstairs boasts large white patent booths and simple, elegant chairs and tables. The bar is clean and chocked full of goodies. Downstairs is where it comes to life. Disco-​ball, mirror effect walls, pole and neon lights. They hold great live events and disco nights. It’s a smart and sharp alternative to the more divier places in Soho.
However. And it’s a big however, their staff are appaling. Bouncers are just rude, but then again it is a big old cliché. The bigger problem I’ve encountered is with the bar staff. Very pretty boys *sigh*, sorry that’s not enough for me. Slow, rude service and even when you do point out they’re charging you too much and that you think that waiting there for ages while you talk to your other friends behind the bar is no fun for people wanting a drink… they are just ruder. At the price of the drinks the least I’d expect is service with a smile through gritted teeth,
Sadly never an isolated issue. I don’t go there anymore.

I went to Freedom last week with my friend, after we ate at Banana Tree, for a nightcap and to meet a couple of his friends.
I gone past this bar on many occasions and ignored it but he suggested and it did the job for a Tuesday night but it wasn’t anything special and when I ordered our drinks, for my friend a pint of Stella and for me a red wine and was presented with a white wine (how does it sound like white wine, apart from the word wine?!) The barman appeared annoyed at my politely mentioning the mix-​up before changing it to my actual request.
The bar was really loud music wise — at the risk of sounding like a biddy, I dread to think what it’s like on a weekend night! — but fairly quiet people wise though to be fair it was a Tuesday night, apart from the wine mistake the service was quick and friendly enough.

Fun space, friendly Door staff, mixed gay/​straight crowd.

Isn’t it a coincidence that every Friday/​Saturday night the draught beers have run out or are malfunctioning? Let’s just be honest about it… you want
a) to spend less time pulling pints and far more making far more lucrative cocktails
b) sell them bottled beer instead with higher profit margins.
I’ve only had the pleasure of coming here twice and both times for birthday parties (so you kinda have to stay longer than you would usually in a place like this).
It takes ages to get served around 9pm and getting from the front towards the bar is like weaving your way to the front row of a Justin Bieber concert*… i.e. jam packed, especially before people are in the mood for heading downstairs for dancing.
*Not that I’ve been to see the Bieber you understand.

Freedom bar was pretty fun, the upstairs is more loungy and theres definitely a mixed crowd of gays and straights here which I enjoyed. Met some cool locals who we ended up hanging out with the rest of the night bar hoping, bought some shots off the hot Brazilian shot boy, and danced down stairs to some pretty horrible music lol. I do have to say this was probably the worst place for drinks, I swear their little shot measurer thing was smaller than everyone elses, I’m convinced. lol. Either way it was a fun start to a Sunday evening.

I’ve spent a sizeable wedge of the last 10 years coiled around one of Freedom’s poles downstairs, haphazardly swirling, attempting to balance out their trademark French Kiss cocktails with deft free-​flowing movement. A veritable swamp of anecdotes come to mind over the years, crashing down the stairs at 17, having an 8-​way at my 18^th birthday and getting thrown out for ‘inappropriate behaviour’ at 23. The scene of many of a memoir narrative, the zebra print, mixed vibe of Freedom — you’ll find me here on any given week day behaving marginally better than in my lusty youth.

I’m pleased to report that since the last revier went to Freedom, some major changes have taken place and after spending the evening there on Friday I can happily report what an excellent evening was had.
As it was my girlfriend’s birthday we’d reserved an area from 7pm upstairs and the staff had kindly included a reserved area downstairs for us for later in the evening when we meandered downstairs for a boogie (all free of charge and no minimum bar spend!).
Arriving at 7pm, we had chance to enjoy one hour of the happy hour. Being served by our own dedicated waitress meant we didn’t even have to bother queuing for the bar (again, no extra charge for table service!). Previously, ordering from the table meant super long waits for your drinks, but not this time; they seem to have improved this no end and drinks were served really quickly and from a very pleasant waitress who was really helpful.
Happy hour cocktail prices are a reasonable £4.95 (and the cocktails are good) and other offers on wine too. Normal cocktail price is £7.95.
The décor has been completely renewed as well and is very plush and decadent. I’m pleased to report that the ladies’ WC on the ground floor has also been completely decorated and no longer is the H&S hazard it once was!
The music was at a decent volume and all the guests could chat easily in the seating area (obviously it was louder when downstairs, but that’s a given).
The only thing that caused us a bother was the bitterly cold draft coming through the gaps in the window where we were seated (in the summer the windows open out onto the street and hence they don’t meet fully at the joins). Unfortunately, the curtains didn’t block out the zero degree gusts.
I was really pleased to see that Freedom had improved from the last time I’d gone and from the buzz on the dancefloor a lot of people agreed!

You always expect stuff in soho to be open later than it is, don’t you? Yeah, I’ve found myself wandering around looking for something to do past 12/​2am and this is one of the few late-​night spots you can hit without having to know a doorman or be on a guest list.
There is a mix to the crowd, so it’s kind of a straight-​friendly place to go if you’re with a group that might not be keen on heading to the likes of G-​A-​Y late, which I’m not even a fan of most of the time.
The drinks are touch and go, I’ve had some really good cocktails from the menu and some that I’ve had to choke down (at 7 + a pop, I’m not going to orphan it). I’ve usually had a really good time here though, it’s a good plan B bar if you can’t find anything to do once things start closing down and your friends that «know of a place» can’t remember what street their «place» was on. Good champagne cocktails too!

I used to really love this bar when I lived nearby. It was open late, very pretty inside, and a good place for a large group of people. It’s still open late, still good for groups, but they gutted the inside and it looks completely different now and I think I preferred it the way it was.
Their drinks have always been quite expensive, but that’s to be expected for a late bar in Soho. I just have an issue paying 7 pounds for a cocktail when I know there’s a measured shot of only 25 ml of booze in it. That’s why I always have wine here.
The music is good and they were playing the film «Gia» on the tv screen so there was lots of nice things to see and hear, but it just wasn’t quite as fun as I remember. Perhaps because it was a Sunday — although the following day was a bank holiday so I expected it to be busier. Did everyone party themselves out on Friday and Saturday? Silly Londoners.
Oh and we saw the hands down drunkest person we’ve ever seen in our lives here that night. Good times.

Years ago we used to come to Freedom Bar quite a lot. Attracted by the long cocktail bar on the main level which had great cocktails and the downstairs clubbing area which attracted a very mixed crowd, good dj’s and continued the flow of great cocktails into our gaping mouths.
However, at some point the bar screwed up. Their attempt at going more metrosexual backfired a bit when people like myself started getting abuse from aggressive straight boys who had only ventured in after the women who genuinely couldn’t care where they were. I thought it disgraceful at the time and hadn’t visited for around 3 years only going again about two months ago.
Okay, I went early evening so didn’t sample the atmosphere during the club hours but whilst we were there we had excellent service and were really taken care of by the bartenders.

I had been ending up at Freedom Bar in Soho a couple of times, and quite enjoyed it. It had a kind of kitchy boudoir feel to it, tasty cocktails and a fun crowd. I usually went with my gay friends as it was initially a gay bar, and then it mixed to gay/​bi and now it is a ‘metrosexual’ bar.
A few months ago I pitched up with a couple of my friends. We certainly weren’t dressed up for a night out, and the charming door man pointed that out to us (he wasn’t the bouncer, he kind of vetted people, like Steve Roubell at Studio 54 — he wishes) Anyway, he made a catty remark about my friends scarf — I think it wasn’t trendy enough — but eventually he sighed and let us in. Thanks mate, we’re ever so grateful! Once I got to the bar I encountered two girls who’d had the same thing happen to them, only this time he had complained that their shoes were not sufficiently hip for them to be let in.
So my warning to you all — watch what you are wearing if you want to come in! Make sure you are bang on trend or you will have to keep walking. Which is what you might want to do anyway.