Waxy O'Connor's Soho is at 14-16 Rupert Street, W1D 6DD, on the short block between Coventry Street and Shaftesbury Avenue, and it is open. On Thursday 8 October 2026 the pub turned 30. For that one night the bar went back to 1996 prices and sold pints at £3, according to the Irish Post, which had a reporter in the room. The offer is over.
What follows does not expire as fast. The pub's own website and CAMRA's entry disagree about the opening hours, so every figure below names where it came from and carries the date it was checked, 13 October 2026. The same applies to the ID rule at the door and to the booking limits. There is also a service charge that few people expect at a bar.
Our Waxy O'Connor's listing has the map and contact details, and the wider choice of pubs in Soho sits in the directory. Start here if the plan is a night in this corner of the West End, in the City of Westminster.
Is Waxy O'Connor's Soho still open and what are the hours
Waxy O'Connor's Soho is open and trading at 14-16 Rupert Street, W1D 6DD. The pub's website, checked on 13 October 2026, lists Monday and Tuesday 3pm to midnight, Wednesday to Saturday noon to midnight, and Sunday noon to 11pm. Piccadilly Circus station is about 150 metres away.
CAMRA's entry for the pub, last updated on 8 July 2026, still shows Monday and Tuesday as 5pm to 11.30pm. Two published versions, 2 hours apart at the start of the week. The venue's own page is the safer one to trust, and a call to 020 7287 0255 settles it before a wasted trip.
Inside there are 4 bars across 6 levels, by the pub's own count. Bar food is served all day. CAMRA records no cask ale, which matters to some drinkers and not at all to others. Sport gets its own section on the website, which lists GAA, rugby, football, horse racing, tennis and golf among the fixtures it screens.
The operator is Glendola Leisure and the freeholder is Shaftesbury, both according to CAMRA. The trading company named on the website is Glendola Irish Bars Ltd. For anyone weighing up an Irish pub in London's West End, those are the companies behind this one.
Who was Waxy O'Connor and did the candle maker exist
The story attached to the pub says Finbar "Waxy" O'Connor was a Dublin candle maker. CAMRA's entry still gives him a birth year, 1788.
He was never born. On the anniversary night the owner, Alex Salussolia, told the Irish Post that the man is an invention. "He's actually a made-up character," he said, and the paper reports that he laughed as he said it. For 30 years the name has been repeated in listings and guides as if it were local history, and the 1 person in a position to know has now put the correction on the record.
By Salussolia's account to the paper, the name came from a list of forenames and surnames drawn up on a research trip around Ireland, and the model for the room was The Quays in Galway. An Irish designer and an Irish builder did the work. The site joined 2 older West End businesses, Sweeney Todd's nightclub and Flanagan's restaurant, which goes some way to explaining a pub spread over 6 levels.
Rupert Street in 1996 was thought of as a backwater, Salussolia said, and the opening happened to land in the years of Riverdance and the peace process, and he ties the timing to both. An Irish pub in Soho was a bet then. Waxy O'Connor's has traded on Rupert Street since 1996, and the candle maker it is named after never existed.
The practical consequence is small but worth having. Any guide, tour script or AI summary that introduces an 18th-century Dublin candle maker is repeating a piece of 1996 branding, and the birth year is the giveaway. The pub's actual history starts in 1996, with an owner, a list of names and 2 older West End premises.
The tree is real. Visit London describes the tree inside the pub as part of a beech planted in Ireland more than 250 years ago. We have not seen paperwork for its age and repeat the claim as theirs.
Inside on the anniversary night after 9pm
Thursday 8 October 2026, a little after 9pm.
Molly's Chambers had taken over from Steve and Henry, the duo who played the early part of the evening, and the set ran from Tell Me Ma and Whiskey in the Jar to Wonderwall and Zombie.
Mark Murphy of the Irish Post, who was there, reported a packed pub. As of 13 October 2026 the website announces no repeat of the 1996 price list. None of that is our own observation and it is not offered as one.
Music is the part of the night that outlasts the anniversary. When the pub opened, bands played at weekends only. The website now promises live music 7 days a week.
There is no fixed schedule page. Times go up on posters in the pub and on its social accounts, so check the current week before travelling for a particular act.
A Thursday also sets the terms for the journey home. Midnight closing applies, and the Night Tube does not run until Friday. For the rest of the week's listings across the district, our round-up of live music in Soho covers the jazz and soul rooms.
What are the door, booking, cost and access rules
Every line here comes from the pub's website or from CAMRA, checked on 13 October 2026. Where the venue publishes nothing, that is stated plainly.
Age and ID. Strictly over 18s. Challenge 25 applies, and the accepted documents are a passport or a driving licence.
Entry. Mostly walk-in. The website states no entry charge and no last-entry time for any night.
Bookings. Monday to Thursday, food and drink bookings are taken for groups of 10 or more. Friday to Sunday, only private areas for 25 or more. Card details are taken and a table is held for 15 minutes.
Cost. Regular prices are not published online. The £3 pint was for 8 October 2026 only. CAMRA notes a small service charge added to bills, including at the bar, which staff will remove on request.
Closing. Midnight Monday to Saturday and 11pm on Sunday, per the pub's website.
Access. The building is on 6 levels. Step-free entry and accessible toilets are not described anywhere on the website, so phone 020 7287 0255 before travelling.
How does Waxy O'Connor's compare with the pubs nearby
Waxy O'Connor's is a large pub, and what suits a group of 12 does not suit everyone.
A party of 12 on a Tuesday can book here, 150 metres from Piccadilly Circus. The published rules are different for a pair on a weekend, when only private areas for 25 or more can be reserved and everyone else walks in.
One nearby pub is a sibling. Waxy's Little Sister is at 20 Wardour Street, W1D 6QG, and its own website, not ours, pitches it as the calmer of the 2. Published hours there, checked on 13 October 2026, are noon to 11.30pm on Monday and Tuesday, noon to midnight from Wednesday to Saturday, and noon to 11pm on Sunday.
The Little Sister opens 3 hours before its bigger sibling at the start of the week, which makes it the only Irish bar in Soho from this stable that is open at Monday lunchtime.
On Rupert Street itself, The Blue Posts is further up the same street at 28 Rupert Street, W1D 6DJ. Its website shows 2 other businesses in the same building, a bar called The Mulwray and a restaurant, Evelyn's Table. Our Rupert Street page lists the other bars and restaurants on the block.
Everything in this comparison is what each venue publishes about itself. Waxy O'Connor's takes group bookings from Monday to Thursday and has live music every night. The Little Sister opens earlier on Monday and Tuesday and describes itself as quieter. Neither claim has been tested by us on a busy night, so treat them as the venues' own.
How do you get home from Rupert Street after midnight
From Waxy O'Connor's, Piccadilly Circus station is 3 to 4 minutes on foot and Leicester Square about 5. On Friday and Saturday nights TfL's Night Tube runs on the Piccadilly line through both stations and on the Northern line from Leicester Square. On every other night, the night buses from Piccadilly Circus are the public option.
Timing matters from Sunday to Thursday. The last regular Piccadilly line train from Piccadilly Circus typically leaves at about 00.20, so a midnight close leaves roughly 15 minutes for a 4-minute walk. Check the TfL app on the night, because engineering work can pull the last train earlier. Our guide to getting home from Soho after midnight sets out the night bus routes by direction.
Leave by the front door and the route is short. Turn south down Rupert Street to Coventry Street, then right for Piccadilly Circus or left across Leicester Square for the Northern line. For a black cab, walk north instead to the marshalled taxi rank on Shaftesbury Avenue. Each venue in the City of Westminster holds its own licence, listed on the council's licensing pages, so do not assume a later bar nearby will take a group after midnight.
Waxy O'Connor's Soho has had 30 years on this W1D corner of Westminster. Take ID, book ahead for a group of 10, and know before the first round which train or bus is taking everyone home.
