London hotel dress codes: what to wear

How to read a London hotel dress code

London's grand hotels rarely describe clothing the same way twice: one bar asks for “smart casual”, another for “elegant attire”, a third simply reserves the right to turn away sportswear. To make those comparable, every venue tracked on this site is normalized to a five-level scale — None, Relaxed, Smart casual, Elegant, Formal — plus three explicit calls that decide an outfit in practice: whether jeans are acceptable, whether sneakers are acceptable, and whether a jacket is expected. The scale itself is explained in the dress code decoder; this page is how it plays out across London.

Jeans, sneakers and jackets: the three calls that matter

A jacket is explicitly required at Afternoon Tea at The Ritz (William Kent House) (The Ritz London)— for everywhere else in the tables above, the hotel either doesn't require one or doesn't say.

Jeans are explicitly acceptable at The Rivoli Bar (The Ritz London) and Jean-Georges at The Connaught (Afternoon Tea) (The Connaught). Jeans are explicitly not permitted at Afternoon Tea at The Ritz (William Kent House) (The Ritz London).

Where a table cell reads “—”, the published dress code doesn't address that item. In practice the venue's overall level is the safer guide: the stricter the level, the less room there is for casual pieces the hotel hasn't explicitly approved.

Afternoon tea and the bar are not the same room

Dress codes attach to venues, not hotels: the same building can list one level for its tea lounge and a different one for its bar, so checking the specific room is what actually settles an outfit. Browse London afternoon tea venues and London hotel bars — every page shows the venue's own verified dress code alongside its non-guest access policy, prices and booking rules, or start from the London hub.

Before you go

Dress codes change quietly — hotels reword pages without announcements. Every venue page here shows when each fact was last checked against the official source, and dress codes are re-verified on a yearly cycle at minimum (how we verify). If a rule would change what you carry across town, glance at the verification date — and when in doubt, the hotel's own page always wins.

Frequently asked questions