Gordon's Wine Bar whisks you back to Victorian London

In the harsh glare of electric light, Gordon's Wine Bar would no doubt be revealed as a mouldy, cramped cellar with wonky furniture, oppressive proportions and all the charm of a prison cell. What a difference candlelight makes.

Illuminated only by wax tapers jammed into old wine bottles, this low, barrel-vaulted space becomes an atmospheric slice of Victorian London giving modern drinkers a chance at time travel.

Located just up Villiers Street from Embankment tube station, the building was once the home of Samuel Pepys and later a thriving trader's office. It was directly on the Thames until the Victoria Embankment pushed the river back 100 yards. At that point, the river-based trade moved out and the wine bar moved in ... letting the current owners claim that, going since 1890, it's London's oldest continuously operating wine bar.

A short list of those "in the know" love this place, though never count on getting a seat. The number of people clamouring at the bar and spilling onto the pavement outside is often double or triple the seating capacity of the atmospheric vaults. The majority of tourists ... and Londoners ... walk by without knowing it's there.

We were recently looking for a place to hold a long lunch for a group of friends in search of good company and fine conversation, and discovered that one section in the candlelit cellars ("the cage", with one table for 8-12) can be reserved. Thus the first meeting of our "Lost Afternooners" club came to convene in Dickensian gloom.

It's a marvellously eclectic place to while away an afternoon, and a surprisingly reasonable one for central London. Lunch and a prodigious afternoon of drinking (we started at 12:30 and left in search of dinner around 8) cost about £55 per person. In addition to facilitating candlelight, the old cellars completely block communications signals, so it's also an excellent place to hide from the incursions of the modern world.

There's a large and various wine list, some of it imported and bottled under the Gordon family name. (The place is, indeed, still family owned.) They're known for their port, which they serve direct from barrels in schooners (dangerously big) and beakers (hangover territory). There is a pool of electric light at the bar, which you'll find by clattering down narrow, steep wooden steps off the river side of the building. There's no entrance from the front, which actually looks like the place is closed. Diagon Alley from Harry Potter's world springs to mind. The lighting in that entry section ... and the credit card machines ... are the only nod to modernity. Otherwise, the barrels, wooden panelling and old prints look like they may well have been here when Rudyard Kipling wrote and drank in this space.

Food, served only at lunch, is hearty and basic. Choose from a short list of pub favourites and add salad from a small buffet for around £12. You must pay separately from your bar tab; the food is definitely an add-on. If you're tucking into the port, then assembling a hearty cheese board sliced from their array of hefty wedges is a must.

If you want to book The Cage on a specific date, it's best to work two or three months in advance. Otherwise, grabbing a table here is a matter of pure luck, though you'll help your chances by arriving in the lull between lunch and the happy hour crowd.