City

Central London

Aldgate

Watchhouse (St. Mary Axe)

Of the branches of Watchhouse I've been to, this has to be the best spot for work. The upstairs area has plenty of comfortable seating with plenty of other people working on their laptops. Every table has its own plug sockets tucked under the bench and the wifi speed is phenomenal. 

The atmosphere can vary between super chill and peaceful to very busy - mostly depends on the time of day! Fridays are normally quiet (probably because a lot of people in the City choose to wfh). This means it can be a bit hit-or-miss with the for taking calls as it can get a bit echo-y with a lot of people around. 

The layout and design of the space itself is amazing. It's very modern and open with huge windows, comfortable furniture and a stunning big staircase. 

Watchhouse is a speciality coffee roaster and even offer coffee subscriptions to enjoy their blends at home, so needless to say the coffee is incredible. They bring out a little card with info on the blend with your coffee and clearly put a lot of care into every cup. 

The default roast they serve in store their 1829 espresso which (according to their website) has undertones of of caramel, milk chocolate and peanut butter and although I'm no coffee connoisseur, I definitely think it's some of the best coffee in London! 

The food at Watchhouse is great, good options for breakfast and lunch at really decent prices! You can get a great lunch for £6 or if you just want a little snack or sweet treat, there's plenty to choose from. You can see the full menu here.

If you arrive at a peak time there is a 90 min 'time limit' which is most likely in place around lunch time although we have been told there is a time limit before and were able to spend two hours there without being asked for the table. 

It's table service here so there is a 12.5% service charge added to your bill but there people that work there are great so we're always happy enough to pay. They're more than happy for you to just order coffee and sit for a while so you don't feel pressured to move on or order more.

Modern work-friendly cafe at the bottom of a skyscraper in the City with speciality coffee and great food.

Association Coffee

Association Coffee felt very work friendly - there were plenty of others on their laptops and I didn't feel the pressure to always be buying something. There's plenty of seating for doing some work including benches around the coffee bar and a long table at the window. 

The music was very chilled giving the place a pretty relaxed vibe. There were also quite a few people popping in for a social coffee with colleagues given its location in the City. 

Overall it's a great spot to come get some deep work done.

This place is definitely serving up some speciality coffee if you're a connoisseur. They have bags of their choice coffee home and even home brewing equipment for sale. We stuck with our classic flat white which was absolutely great - would definitely come back for more!  

Being there around lunch time, I had a ham and cheese toastie which was amazing. Great example of something simple done so well! I think may have been the only 'lunch' option available actually but I couldn't really have asked for anything better... and it was £3.90 so an absolute bargain compared to average London lunch prices!

Around the more work-friendly spots I didn't see any charging points so be sure to come with a fully charged laptop or try get a seat at the tall tables at wall where there might be some. 

I couldn't spot any wifi networks for Association Coffee so just used my hotspot which wasn't a problem since the network connection was great. I had 5G the whole time I was there. There's a chance they could have a network that I didn't spot so maybe ask! 

Given it's a City spot, it is closed at the weekend since it's normal city-folk clientele won't be in the office! 

The coffee grinder is used pretty often and although it didn't bother me at all (even though I was sitting right in front of it!), it probably isn't a great background sound for virtual meetings.

Work cafes in City

Watchhouse (St. Mary Axe)

Association Coffee