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THE ALVIATOR'S VERDICT
This is British Airways' best Galleries lounge at Heathrow with a calm atmosphere and good seating, though with lacklustre food, a self-service bar and hospital-style shower suites, their full lounge redevelopment couldn't come sooner |
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While I’ve flown British Airways out of Heathrow Airport countless times in the past few years, I’ve never actually gotten around to a full review of all of the airlines’ lounges at Heathrow’s Terminal 5. While I’ve reviewed the North Galleries Lounge at Terminal 5A (just by the North Security area), I’ve visited the other lounges, but never gotten around to a full review. That’s because the lounges have been nothing to write home about.
Well, on a recent trip from London to Cologne, I figured it was time to change this. British Airways did a revamp of their Terminal 5 lounges in late 2023, and I was keen to check out what these new lounges were like. Specifically, I remember British Airways’ Terminal 5B lounge at Heathrow to be more serene than their other lounges around the terminal, so I made sure to spend some solid time at that lounge before my flight.
Well, how was it? British Airways’ lounges are not great, and this lounge is no exception. The bar is self-serve, the made-to-order options simply consist of ready-made food being plated for you, and despite the comfortable seating, it’s still a crowded space. This is a perfectly fine space to spend some time, and I’d call it the airline’s best business class lounge at Heathrow’s T5 – however, that’s really not saying much.
This lounge pales in comparison to the lounge options you have if you’re flying one of British Airways’ flights out of Terminal 3 (not that you’ll normally get a choice). British Airways’ Heathrow lounges feel a lot more like contract lounges than a flagship airline hub lounge at one of the world’s most high-yield airports (this is also true of Lufthansa, their behemoth European competitor). However, the airline doesn’t have an incentive to massively invest in their lounges, as people typically choose British Airways for their convenience and not for their lounges.
I know that British Airways is fully redeveloping their Heathrow lounges in 2026, and that really couldn’t come sooner.
British Airways Galleries Lounge T5B Access and Opening Hours
The British Airways Galleries Lounge at Terminal 5B is open to:
- British Airways first and business class passengers
- While British Airways has a separate Concorde Room for First Class passengers and a separate Galleries First lounge for Oneworld Emerald members, the lounge operates one lounge for all at Terminal 5B; you’ll have to return to the “main” Terminal 5A in order to visit a dedicated lounge
- Iberia business class passengers
- Oneworld Emerald and Sapphire members (including British Airways Silver and Gold members)
- Passengers connecting onwards from a British Airways first or business class long-haul flight, even if the connecting flight is in economy
While the lounge is theoretically open to all Oneworld passengers, you won’t be accessing this lounge unless you’re flying BA or Iberia, since all other Oneworld airlines depart out of Terminals 3 or 4. You won’t be able to transfer between terminals to access this lounge (not that you’d want to, given the amazing lounge options you have at both Terminal 3 and Terminal 4).
The lounge is open from 5 AM to 10 PM, reflecting all of the airline’s departures from Heathrow Airport.
British Airways Galleries Lounge T5B Location
British Airways’ Galleries Lounge at Heathrow’s Terminal 5B is located by the B gates (as the name suggests). You’ll find the entrance by gate B36, about a minute-long walk from where the Transit train lets off. I generally find signage at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 to be quite good (unlike T3), so you’ll have no issues finding the lounge.
Do note that if you’re flying out of Terminal 5A as most shorthaul flights do, the Transit train only moves away from the main terminal (it carries arrivals passengers back in the other direction). Thankfully there is a very nice walkway that connects Terminals 5A, 5B, and 5C, so you can use the walkway to walk back to Terminal 5A for your flight, which will take approximately 5-10 minutes. The walkway is significantly more pleasant than the Transit train, so I’d walk it if I had the time anyway.
Heathrow Terminal 5 Walkway between piers
Terminals 5B and 5C are much more tranquil than Terminal 5A anyway, so if you’ve got a long layover with no lounge access, I’d recommend heading to one of those terminals for some peace and quiet. Anyway, at Terminal 5B, I followed the signage towards the British Airways lounge, which is the only lounge at this part of the airport.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Entrance
I headed up the escalator to find two mirrored lounge staff desks. You can use either side, as both sides of the lounge connect with each other.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Entrance
I was admitted by a lounge attendant, and was let in to the Galleries lounge.
British Airways Galleries Lounge T5B Seating and Atmosphere
British Airways’ T5 Galleries lounge consists of one large main room, with two “offshoots” in either direction of the lounge. The main lounge is located directly forward from the entrance (though you’ll have to walk around the lift shaft in order to enter the lounge, hence the weird entrance setup).
The main room is in the back, and the centerpiece is a light fixture and a bar table, where most of the lounge’s drinks selection is located. British Airways’ lounges seem to quite consistently have quite nice lighting next to their bar areas (thankfully for this lounge, it no longer feels like the only part of the lounge they invested any money in).
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Main Area
You’ll find plenty of armchair seating behind. British Airways overhauled this seating in 2023, and I’d say that it largely featured very comfortable armchairs. There isn’t a particularly good setup for a group, and the area was also consistently quite crowded. However, I’d say that this is a significant improvement over the seating that the lounge used to feature.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Main Area
I most enjoyed these heavily cushioned armchairs, and the partitions made for some very private seating cocoons.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Main Area Armchairs
To one of the sides of this area, there was a long table and some other seating, as well as some coffee machines.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Main Area
The main area had a few water and juice dispensers, and you could also get a smoothie, which was housed in a rather cute wooden dispenser.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Water, Juice and Smoothie Dispenser
Off to one of the sides of the lounge is the airline’s Whispering Angel bar. Here, you’ll find lots of the brand’s signature rosé wine. It’s quite British in many ways – it’s open round the clock (meaning you can start your vacation in the quintessentially British way by day drinking at 5 AM), and is branded after rosé wine. I’ll detail the food and beverage options in one place later down the post, though the area itself features more sofas and comfortable seating. It doesn’t scream London wine bar vibes despite the attempt with chandeliers (there’s just something about the overuse of baby pink that feels a bit off), but it is a nice area…
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Whispering Angel Bar
While the lounge has no “direct” tarmac views, you’ve got quite an aerial view of widebody British Airways aircraft from the lounge, which is a real treat.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B view of British Airways 777
Then on the other side of the lounge from the main room, I found my favourite area of the lounge. This area was a much more tranquil space with far fewer guests, though still featured lots of natural light.
First up in this area was a handsome-looking restaurant-style area, with benches and orange chairs.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Restaurant Area
Then came an area with some bar seating and high tables, which was deserted throughout most of my stay (to be fair, this is probably some of the less comfortable seating in the lounge). There’s a coffee machine near this area.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Seating
Then at the very back of the lounge was a rest area, with some chairs facing the terminal, some private work pods, as well as some chairs with ottomans.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Seating
I’d say the lounge was quiet in the late morning (around 10-11 AM) when I first dropped by, and quiet again at around 4-5 PM. However, the lounge is fairly busy after lunch, presumably due to the number of longhaul departures leaving the B gates.
WiFi throughout the lounge was decent (50 Mbps down, but only 5 Mbps up, though perfectly usable), though I wasn’t as impressed with the overall lack of power ports at this lounge. There were quite a few areas of the lounge where I felt like I had to hunt for a power port. Some of the power ports (particularly in the rest area) were even broken, which is a bit disappointing for a lounge refurbished just a couple of years ago. To the airline’s credit, there were these very handy MagSafe wireless charging stations dotted at points throughout the lounge.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Wireless Charging
This is a modern hub lounge with some comfortable seating. From a seating standpoint alone, I’d say that you’ll always find a comfortable free seat in this lounge, despite it probably being not the most tranquil hub lounge you’ll ever find. However, there’s just not much “pizzazz” – there’s no bar, charging ports aren’t accessible from every seat, and the seating doesn’t feel creative (particularly by the wine bar area).
British Airways Galleries Lounge T5B Food and Beverage
I was keen to check out what British Airways offered for food and beverages at their Terminal 5B lounge. On the plus side, it is better than it was before, with the addition of a plated-to-order station (I think calling it “made-to-order” is a bit generous).
I was working from this lounge on this day, so I got to see both their breakfast and lunch/afternoon options before my 18:45 flight. The breakfast options are standard run-of-the-mill hash browns, baked beans, eggs, and sausages, though at least everything is executed decently. You’ll also find a selection of pastries.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Breakfast Spread
You’ll also find a selection of chopped fruits and cereals on the other side of the food spread area.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Cold Breakfast Options
The transition to the lunch menu happened at around 11:30 AM, and on one side there was a full salad bar.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Salad Bar
On the other side, there were dishes such as quiche, fish cakes, curry, mac and cheese, roast potatoes and mixed vegetables. Do note that all three of British Airways’ business class lounges feature the same food selection.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Lunch Spread
Unique to this lounge at Heathrow is a live cooking station. Now, I think calling this a “live” cooking station is incredibly generous, as a lot of what you can find here is pre-warmed. For example, when I asked for pancakes in the morning, the lounge attendant pulled some pancakes out of a pre-warmed container, as opposed to making them from scratch.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Live Cooking Station
The options in the morning were a variety of carb-y options, including bagels, butty, filled croissant, and pancakes.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Breakfast Options
You could also get overnight oats, though these were sitting in individual pots, and were simply handed to you if you asked.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Made-To-Order menu
During lunch, this selection was replaced with a few scotch eggs and pies. You could also order pizza, and the menu also mentioned a fish finger sandwich, though they weren’t serving that today.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B
While the food spread is generous, I can’t help but feel like it was quite low-quality – most things were quite beige (either curry, fish cake, or pastries of some sort) apart from the salad bar, and it sort of felt like raiding the ready meal section in the Tesco freezer aisle.
I’m not much kinder about the drinks selection. To the lounge’s credit, Union Coffee coffee machines are some of the best machine-made coffee machines I’ve seen in a lounge, though that’s really not saying much. There were two coffee stations throughout this lounge.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Coffee Machines
There’s also a large selection of spirits and liqueurs, as well as beers and soft drinks in the fridge. There’s not much in the way of English sparkling wines (though there is a good selection of English beers in the fridges, which I didn’t end up photographing).
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Bar
Everything is self-service, though there are some pre-mixed cocktails (you can “make your own cocktail” by adding ice, and in some cases a slice of lime). This has such a “cheap” feeling compared to a full-service bar, especially with the school laboratory-style shot dispensers. In addition, I didn’t find the actual cocktail mixes to be great.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B DIY Cocktail Set
In the early afternoon two jugs of Pimms were brought out, which were probably the best thing about the lounge’s drinks selection.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Pimms
Meanwhile, at the Whispering Angel bar, you’ll find exclusively rosé wine from Chateau d’Esclans. The wine itself goes for £13.33 per 750 mL bottle on Winedrops. It’s definitely got more Barefoot or La Vieille Ferme vibes than a legitimate premium wine bar, though I kind of appreciate the sentiment.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Whispering Angel Bar
There is a bit of a lounge “secret”. One thing you can do at this lounge is flag down a lounge attendant and ask for a glass of champagne – British Airways doesn’t put champagne on display at Club lounges. The champagne was Heidsieck & Co Monopole Blue Top, which tasted alright, but not amazing (I was ID’ed before being served the champagne). It’s probably the most premium beverage available throughout the lounge.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Champagne
British Airways generally has a lot to catch up on in terms of their food and beverage quality. The lack of a full-service bar at their hub lounge at Heathrow is on the embarrassing side (especially since they’re currently introducing outstation lounges with full-service bars), and lots of the alcohol options feel quite cheap. This lounge is used for high-yield longhaul flights in Club World that can stretch to thousands of pounds for a one-way flight, and the dining options here definitely feel more “budget house party” than classy – much more so than the airline’s food served onboard.
I think the airline is revamping food and beverage as part of their 2026 lounge refresh, which couldn’t be more needed. Surely DO&CO (managing their catering) can contribute, given that their onboard food quality in Club World is above average?
British Airways Galleries Lounge T5B Shower Rooms
I’m not sure how many shower rooms the British Airways Galleries Lounge T5B has, though they were readily available throughout my time at the lounge. I take it that unless you’re departing in the early morning, most people are departing from London and not in dire need of a shower room.
The actual shower facilities are good (including the Elemis toiletries), though there can’t possibly be a more sterile hospital-style shower room out there, at least in terms of aesthetics. There’s even a clearly labelled sharps bin, which you don’t even see in other airline lounges.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Shower Rooms
British Airways Galleries Lounge T5B Other Facilities
In terms of other facilities, there’s a luggage storage area by the entrance, which can be handy if you’re bringing hand luggage onboard.
British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5B Luggage Storage Area
There’s also a kids’ playroom by the Whispering Angel bar (not the placement I would’ve gone for, but…) It was occupied throughout my time at the lounge.
British Airways Galleries Lounge T5B Service
Everyone I met at this Galleries lounge was engaging. However, I can’t help but feel like British Airways doesn’t really train staff to be particularly eager to please, at least within lounges. Most of the staff I interacted with were completely reactive rather than proactive, and wouldn’t engage in any conversation outside of fulfilling guests’ needs.
This reflects my feeling of the lounge as a whole – most things are self-serve, and even some of the more serviced components (e.g. the “live” food station) are half-hearted. Instead of having a few made-to-order options, pre-warmed options are simply put on a plate in front of you. And this is the best of all of the British Airways Club lounges at Heathrow (obviously there’s the Concorde Room and the Galleries First lounge for First Class and Oneworld Emerald passengers, which I’d imagine have a different service infrastructure).
I don’t really mind this in a business class lounge, though it’s a stark contrast to the Qantas Lounge at Heathrow’s Terminal 3, as well as the Cathay Pacific lounge.
Conclusion: British Airways Galleries Lounge T5B
On the plus side, this is British Airways’ best lounge at Heathrow Airport (and the best non-first class lounge at Heathrow’s T5), and I like the seating for the most part.
British Airways can get away with providing a half-hearted ground experience, because people are choosing British Airways for convenience over luxury. And oh boy do they take advantage of this. While British Airways’ onboard longhaul business class experience has improved fairly significantly over the past few years, the lounge situation at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 still kind of sucks, in my opinion. It’s crazy how much better Virgin Atlantic’s ground experience is for Upper Class passengers, and Oneworld partners Qantas, Cathay Pacific and Qatar Airways have exponentially better lounges at the airline’s home airport (you can’t lounge hop between terminals at Heathrow, unfortunately).
From a consumer standpoint, Heathrow’s T5 is quite efficient, so my advice would simply be to skip the lounge unless you’re looking to get some work done. From British Airways’ standpoint, I’d start from putting some investment in the food and beverages – scrap some of the diverse offerings (such as redundant plating station, hidden champagne, mediocre cocktail mix, or a bar full of mid-tier rosé) and reinvest into a small but stronger menu, maybe with a couple of serviced cocktails/barista coffee, or at least a better drinks selection. Perhaps the 2026 lounge overhaul will do just that – we’ll see.
What’s your take on British Airways’ lounges at Heathrow Airport?