Uno, Dos, Tres… Twelve!!!

22-23 Denmark Place, London WC2H 8NL

This is just another of those really nice places you may find in Tottenham Court Road vicinity. Or you used to, as as a result of a new railway construction quite a lot of real classics have been recently closed: Metro -one of my favourites-, The End-for many people, one of the best techno clubs in Europe-, The Sin – a nice Heavy Metal club-, Astoria and Astoria II – once more, real classics and real loses to this city spirit-, and so on. Under this circunstances, it is indeed a real pleasure to find out from time to time that there are still places opened that are worth a visit in this area. And Twelve bar is one of them, with all the basic ingredients you may expect in this blog: good mood, good music, nice decoration, and opened til late. All those Beatles posters, old mag covers, vinyls, and so on, make this place a unique one.

I discovered it a while ago, or, being accurate, Victor discovered it. And I rediscovered it quite recently, thanks to my brother, who spent his New Year’s Eve in the place. And I’d love to re-rediscover it as many times as needed, as this is the sort of place that makes a difference.

The main issue about Twelve is music, or, to be as accurate as possible, live music. Gigs. Everyday there are not one or two, but four bands playing, some times for a small door cover, some times for free. I’ve seen here two different types of band: a new metal crazy crew and a blues jam session. That should give you an idea of how open minded the place is, and also should make you think about the type of music you really like and the one going gon the specific night you are in before going inside, as you can expect almost everything there.


The distribution is the following: a small room with tables to have a quiet drink with your girlfriend, a small and dark room where gigs take place (what were you thinking about, naughty boy?), a big room with a pool table and a small terrace where every smoker can have a fag – and get frozen in the attempt, at least last weeks… how can it be THAT cold?

If you go earlier -gigs usually start about 8 pm- you can also have quite fun. Pretty good UK music is played, including Beatles, Rolling Stones, Smiths and also some more recent stuff, and, depending of who’s in the bar, you may ask for a couple of songs if you want. One of them is a nasty bastard, the other is really very very friendly. So good luck.

Drinks are cheap enough if you think you are in Central London, on a 10 minutes walking distance from Leicester Square. 3 quid per pint, with Red Stripe as option if you like lager. Guinness and other usual suspects are of course available as well. And all in this sort of low rent look venue so common in London, where everything looks like it is really dirty but you somehow decide to like it.

And of course the pool table that, luckily enough, is almost always empty while no concert is taking place… well, it is also empty when a concert takes place, but playing pool with a band playing would be kind of a rude thing, don’t you reckon?