NAVIGATING London’s pubs is not an easy mission – but one East End entrepreneur has taken it upon herself to make enjoying your favourite tipple a whole lot easier.

After leaving her job at a national newspaper six months ago, Emma Hartley has watched her phone app on late-night watering holes go from strength to strength.

Her iPhone design, called 24hourlondon, maps all the pubs in the capital with a late licence so those working unsociable shifts, or others who simply aren’t ready to go home, can find out what is still open nearby.

The journalist explained: “It all started when I was working really long hours and not leaving the office until about 10pm. I’d want to go for a drink with colleagues but I’d have one and then have to leave because I had no idea which places were still open.

“There’s a knack of local knowledge in London and places open and close so quickly.”

The determined East Ender started building up a database of establishments and their opening hours in June and sales for her iPhone app have already reached 3,000.

Ms Hartley, 40, is now planning to expand it over the rest of the country and then New York.

She is also hoping to make the app interactive, so users can rate establishments.

App designers can expect to pocket 50 to 70 per cent of the sale of their product.

“It’s a full time project but I’ve got big plans for it,” the designer said.

“Apps are fairly new but there’s a big community of people out there doing the same thing and it’s a growing market.”