Hippodrome Casino

The Hippodrome opened in 1900 as a purpose-built variety theatre and circus, complete with a water tank for aquatic spectacles, and it passed through decades as a music hall, a nightclub, and a theatre before its 2012 reopening as a casino. The Grade II listed exterior on Cranbourn Street, at the northeast corner of Leicester Square, was preserved and restored, while the interior was almost entirely rebuilt across several floors to hold gaming rooms, bars, and a cabaret theatre.

That theatrical inheritance shapes the whole venue: rather than a single gaming hall, the Hippodrome is arranged over multiple levels connected by a grand central staircase, each floor with a different character, from a bright American-games and slots floor to quieter upstairs rooms for poker and higher-stakes table games. The basement Matcham Room, named for the original theatre's architect Frank Matcham, still runs as a cabaret and event space, so a night here can combine dinner, a show, and the gaming floor under one roof.

As a modern London casino operating under UK gambling law, it also has a noticeably different entry culture from the continental houses in this atlas: there is no historic requirement to present a passport at a national-border-style checkpoint, dress codes are comparatively relaxed, and the venue positions itself as much as a West End night-out destination as a traditional casino.

Its Leicester Square location means it sits inside London's densest tourist and theatre district, a few minutes' walk from Covent Garden, the National Gallery, and the main West End theatre strip — making it one of the easiest venues in this guide to combine with an evening already built around dinner and a show.