Frank’s Cafe

If franks is open then summer has really arrived! The views are epic and on a sunny day it’s an amazing place to be. The food is nice but a little pretentious! And be warned the toilets are akin to glasto.

My first rooftop bar experience in London and by far my favourite!
The view is just breathtaking!
Situated on the 10TH floor of a multi-​storey car park in Peckham — I love how completely random this place is. I remember struggling for about 10 minutes trying to figure out where Frank’s Café was
When I did eventually find it, I felt like I had just discovered a secret venue.
My first visit was on a Sunday afternoon and there were only a handful of people, hence my above feeling.
I remember the food and drinks being reasonable, with the food portions slightly on the small side, but literally nothing could ruin my day after discovering this place.
My second visit was on a Friday night and there were significantly more people. We still had an amazing time and enjoyed the view immensely.
Franks open it’s roof again on the 19^th of May 2016! (seasonal opening times)
Don’t miss out on summer + rooftops + drinks + views!

A really really great view of London if you don’t mind the random location and trek high up many stories of an old car park. it’s worth it though. Especially on a warm summers day. I suppose it’s where the south London hipsters hang out in a now trendier Peckham. But yeah it’s really good for the view of the city which you have clear view of. It looks further than you think as the skyscrapers dominate the distance.

This is the kind of place you come to because you’ve heard how cool it is. So, understandably, it was full of very cool people. But that meant that it was extremely loud and warm. It’s probably much nicer on a sunny day, when people can spread our over the whole roof. I was unlucky enough to go on a miserable rainy day, which meant everyone was crammed into every inch of covered space. It was so loud that we actually sat out in the rain for a bit, rather than join the masses. Still, excellent views. Hard to find — you really need to know where you’re going in advance because it’s not signposted from the bottom of the carpark. Although as you get closer to the top there are lots of helpful stewards. Use the loos early, and then AVOID them for the rest of the evening — unpleasant.

What a unique rooftop bar and what an adventure to get to it! After finding the entrance to the car park there are multiple steps and ramps to negotiate, as well as security check, before you finally get to this bar on the top level of the structure. The view across South London and into the city and Canary Wharf is awesome and worth the hassle on its own. It was busy on a rainy September evening, so I dread to think how packed it gets on a beautiful summer day. There is a large sheltered seated area so don’t let a little rain deter you. Everyone should visit this bar at least once.
I am so happy to have visited this bar and can imagine coming back to show out of town friends who visit next summer. Having said that I will not be back for my own benefit, as the only beer on tap was Estrella and I am, as you may know, something of a beer snob.

I had been meaning to try Frank’s for some time and finally made it there on a sunny Saturday afternoon in September. Franks’s can be incredibly difficult to find, the best direction advice that I can give are that it is on top of a multistory car park behind the cinema. The car park itself is usually empty and on the floor below the bar there were some art exhibits.
Frank’s on the the top floor and has no roof so isn’t a place to come if it is tipping with rain but on a warm sunny day I could see it being packed out. The furniture consisted of old wooden boxes (very hip) and was comfortable enough for our 2 hour stay. The views over London are great, Westminster, the City and Canary Wharf are all in shot. I’m a fan and will definitely be back!

Quarante minutes de bus après, ajouté à facilement 15 minutes de marche à pied, oui on peut le dire, on a bien mérité notre rooftop du Frank’s Café, une fois sur place.
Honnêtement si on a pas fait le parcours seul au mois une fois, normal que le trajet paraisse long, la prochaine fois au moins ça ira. Sortir de la city pour s’éloigner dans les quartiers éloignés, réclame déjà un minimum de motivation et comme si c’était pas suffisant, le lieu est un peu caché, au dixième étage du parking pour voiture d’un multiplex.
Manqué de bol on a eu averse à notre arrivée, la poisse parce la journée était au pire couverte depuis qu’elle avait commencé. Une longue toile du donc être déployé pour couvrir une partie des banc présent là haut.
Chance par contre, le gros des clients venant en groupes importants, la moitié des places avec vu sur le lointain centre ville de Londres étaient disponible. Sirotant un verre de Pimm’s, on s’est délecté avec plaisir du spectacle, le coucher de soleil conjugué à la fin de chute de pluie se transformant en apothéose rêvé.

The space is great, and with «space» I mean the parking lot and the idea of having a bar/​café there. The views are amazing, but apart from these couple of great things, the place is overpriced and kind of a hype. You know what I mean? 12 quids for a kebab in a place where the toilets are a hole in the floor it’s a bit much…

I’ve only ever experienced Frank’s once and I think I got very lucky. Arriving at about 2pm on a Saturday afternoon with the sun blazing this was a good place to be. Plenty of seating space if you want to rest your weary legs after climbing all those stairs and even some with a bit of shade if that’s what you are after.
The food looked ok but was definitely overpriced and I paid £20 for a jug of Pimm’s. Fairly standard price for London and one tastes the same as the next.
I left around 5pm and it was starting to get busy then and I can imagine that it will be a bit of a nightmare when it’s packed. Service is hit and miss and the bar area gets a bit cramped. I’ll have to pay it another visit to experience the difference once the sun goes down

Great view! This is a bar/​café on the top of an abandoned car park. It’s suitably grotty (but in a nice way) with a vast amount of ex car park space to occupy. There are selfie stick opportunities all over the place but leave them at home because this ain’t the crowd. On that, probably not the best place to take the parents or any one that enjoys soft, fluffy clean things. The toilets are reminisce of those found in organised camp sites which is fine by me but doesn’t suit everyone.
The wine list is simple (one btl white, one btl red), the other drinks are relatively reasonable for a roof top bar. There is food available which looks pretty good and again ok priced. It’s mainly simple share-​y nibbles (almonds, olives, one whole artichoke) but you can get a couple of more substantial bits and pieces like a daily kebab. I would probably keep the eating to days that have minimal wind.
Take your sunscreen because this is quite a wide open, uncovered space. And not the best place if it’s raining. Amazing for a sunset gaze. Definitely worth a visit.

This was one of my favourite summertime haunts. Turned up last Friday at 8, and wow. What a change. So many people, shortly after I arrived a queue of over 150 people had formed, one in, one out.
My drink was badly made and expensive. Staff and security were friendly and helpful, but the new breed of punters, best avoided. Some really unpleasant characters.
Glad I got to enjoy it the last few years, before the hoards ruined it. It’s unlikely that I’ll ever return.
Thankfully lots of new places to try nearby.

Franks opening in Peckham heralds the beginning of summer for this corner of SE London, yes there are queues and the crowd is universally wearing moustaches and shamelessly hipster shirts. But there is nowhere greater for a post work sundowner. I love Franks.

This place is really, really hard to find. My friend and I were total strangers to the area, and we must have walked around for at least 20 minutes before we encountered a kind stranger that happened to be going the same way. Even once you are at the Multiplex referenced in the Direction part of their website, there is no yellow lift and you have to walk around the side of the car park until you see an open door, which naturally you just have to take. Also, Abbey National definitely doesn’t exist anymore, and it is a Santander branch now. We then followed this kind stranger up the steps, and she explained that once you get to the 6^th floor, you just go straight and turn right, but in reality, I would have been confused again, because you walk through a deserted car park without any idea of where to turn, as it is not signposted in the least. Then once you go past the bouncer, you walk through some art installations, and after some winding ramps, you end up at the actual rooftop bar area.
Even on an overcast day, the bar was pretty busy. We were told that on a sunny day, it is rammed and takes forever to get a drink at the bar. Luckily, we did not encounter such issues and ordered a jug of Pimm’s (20 pounds, not bad), and got 2 seats on the ledge overlooking the City and central London. We could see the bar atop the Bussey Building behind us, but given that we were closer to the City, I think Frank’s Café is the more preferable between them. The view was unobstructed, and it was a great day to look out onto our favorite new skyscrapers and chat for a few hours. They also serve food, with table service, and I saw an artichoke and burnt onion stuffed with goat curd come out, but we didn’t get anything. The only downer about the whole experience is that the bathrooms are absolutely rank, because they are basically port-​a-​potties. They have running water to wash your hands, it’s just a shame they couldn’t get it for the toilets… Otherwise, it is a very good scene and I definitely plan to come back on a sunnier occasion.

If you don’t know Peckham then this place can be hard to find. I’ve had to go searching for friends many times that have managed to find themselves down a street ten minutes off or just in the wrong rooftop bar (CLF Café has one too now). Head to the cinema and turn right to go round the outside of the building. On your left you’ll come to a fire door with some ugly concrete stairs, then up, up, up you go.
Beautiful views and amazing summer vibes here. The food is gorgeous, with a very sexy cheese board on the menu. Cocktails are not extortionate and really well done. Be prepared to search for the very last bit of concrete left to sit on as it gets rammed in the evenings. Head there before 1 on weekends if you want a seat in the sunshine (for the love of God, wear sun lotion!)
Also have art installations on the lower floors of the car park which is a fun little add-​on to this place, and occasionally have random djs there.

Beautiful place, beautiful view in hard to find location. Don’t be put off by the entrance. Frank’s is a pretty fancy place for the area with drinks around £7. Quite a sight and attracts visitors from around London. Worth noting is that bussey building rooftop has pretty much the same view and much better prices.

Frank’s is everything you’ve heard.
Great views of the city, summer time only, limited head count, unmarked, secret and hard to find. In Peckham ill-fitting-high-waisted-cut-off’s-f’n Rye. Decent beers and a vegan food plates. It’s a hipster’s wet dream.
Trying to find this place, we were standing on the sidewalk looking at the phone when the market stall owner saw these very out-​of-​place kids and told us «Frank’s is on top of the building» pointing to the cinema. We headed that way. Still no signs. There was a guy with a button up shirt with boats printed all over it. I knew we should follow him.
It’s in a place called MULTI-​STORY CAR PARK (which there are signs for). Walk all the way to the top. I’m at the top of a car park standing in line with other people and bouncers– to nothing. For 30 minutes. I could almost feel my tshirt becoming a non-​ironic crop top in the too-​hip atmosphere. Thankfully, once we were up there meeting our friends, it was all ok.
PROTIP: If you have friends up there, have them get your drink when they’re getting theirs. The queue is also quite long for drinks.
Worth going as long as there are not any other events going on in the car park. Not sure how you look that up. But there is a person limit for the whole floor/​building, so a pop-​up orchestra or book-​fair means fewer people allowed in the rooftop bar.

Thank god I bumped into my friend at the train station as I was coming here. No matter what the map says, there is NO WAY I would have found this place without some serious directions (head for the cinema then go round the car park on the right, through a dodge side door, up the stairs as far as you can then into the empty car park and up two levels before you see a security guard then keep going up).
It’s pretty spectacular how on a Tuesday evening at 6:30pm, every table in this rather large outdoor seating area (the entire top level of the multistorey) was taken. This place was busy busy busy. So busy, in fact, that they needed some more staff. Considering the size of this place and how many people they anticipate coming here you’d think they’d have a bigger bar, the queue was 8 people deep until 9pm when it eased somewhat. Also, it seems they have a few under 18s behind the bar who are not allowed to serve but can fetch, carry and collect. This means all orders are being taken by about 3 people in total. Waits for drinks were as long as 45 minutes.
Oh and by the way, Aperol Spritz… I’ve just returned from Italy where I paid at most 5 euros for double the quantity they serve here for £7. SEVEN POUNDS!!! It’s the simplest bloody cocktail to make in the world AND they even get the quantities wrong. It’s not bloody hard, you know the recipe is written on the damn bottle, it’s 3−2−1 not ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ and nobody said you had to use a bloody jigger to measure your prosecco, that’s pretty stingy. It would also help if you didn’t use tiny glasses to serve it in.
Otherwise, they serve meantime beer which is fine I suppose if you don’t mind paying £4.50 a pint.
It has a great view, a shelter if it rains and some pretty awful toilets (if you can call them that). It’s pretty cool though.

Agree with most of the reviews here but I have a couple of gripes. They’ve restricted the food area to the covered section, and we went for my birthday last night and by 8:30pm they were already out of the Pastrami and some other dishes we were after. We ordered the corn and it never came. Then the waiter finally remembered and lackadaisically told us they were sorry but forgot to write it down and now the kitchen was closed. Nevertheless, it’s a cool place and great drinks. They’ve changed their menu a bit so it seems they’re working on the food, so the service and availability just has to rise to the level of the bar service for it to be even greater.

great if the weather is great, which is why it’s open 4 months of the year.
yes its trendy but its cool and a fun place to hang out with friends.
add the view into this and you’ve got a great venue. food I had was basic but well cooked and tasted great. reasonably priced. as are the drink.
like it. see you next year Frank.

This place is incredible. A nice bar, decent food and and incredible location. Located on top of a multi-​storey car park in Peckham the views from this place are truly some of the best in London, plus there is tons of space meaning it has virtually unlimited capacity.
There are one or two drawbacks which stopped me giving this place 5 stars though: The bar is just not big enough to cope with the crowds this place gets, you can easily queue for 45 minutes to get served on a Friday or Saturday evening (afternoons tend to be a better bet). The bar is also full of white hipsters (in one of the most un-​white and un-​hipster parts of London) and this gets on my nerves much of the time. Worth a visit for a couple of hours for the views but I couldn’t spend a whole evening here due to the clientele myself.

It really is a carpark. You have to walk up the level ramps and the cars become fewer and fewer and then become replaced with random pieces of sculpture. And then you reach the roof level (which is where we usually hate ending up when we try to park) and there’s this giant red fabric covered bar, housey technoey music and a ton of people having a blast.
They were only serving white and rose that night? Not sure if thats all the time. And the bathrooms had a line down the street* but we still had a great time dancing and just enjoying the great weather and strange venue.
The only reason I was there was the fact that I was led by some pretty hep south londoners I occasionally spend time with in that area. It wouldn’t be the first place I think of on a regular night out. BUT if Im ever entertaining in South London and my friend’s say «Where to next?» This will definitely be a great place to make it «One of those nights»
*Emergency Potty Tip!: Go to the McDonald’s across the street, there’s less of a line there.