Top Ten Historic Pubs In London

London is bursting with historic pubs. I have taken on the difficult task of trying to identify my top ten- there are so many good ones! I also could not resist including a few ‘honourable mentions’ at the bottom.

Please do let me know in the comments what yours would be. Scroll down a map with all of their locations.

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The Most Iconic: The George Inn

No list of London’s most historic pubs would be complete without The George.

The rambling and creaking George Inn just off Borough High Street is the only surviving galleried coaching inn in London. Parts of the pub date back to 1676 when it was rebuilt after a fire. Borough High Street was once lined with the entrances to coaching inns, termini for the once thriving stagecoach industry. One of those lost over the centuries was The Tabard, famously where Chaucer’s pilgrims take off from in Canterbury Tales.

Dickens described the old coaching houses wonderfully when he said: ‘Great rambling queer old places they are, with galleries and passages and staircases, wide enough and antiquated enough to furnish materials for a hundred ghost stories.’

I also happened to have my book launch here so it has a special place in my heart!

See their website here.

The Most Atmospheric: Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese 

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese was constructed in 1667, just one year after the Great Fire of London. To remind you of its age, on the outside it has a list of the monarchs that it has been open for from Charles II until present day.

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is much bigger on the inside, that it looks from the outside and it is a veritable maze of gloomy, atmospheric nooks and crannies to sup your tipple of choice.

You can descend down into the 17th century cellars, said by some to erroneously be part of a 13th century monastery. Spot the stuffed parrot behind the main bar on the ground floor. Polly, the African Grey parrot, was the famously foul-mouthed resident of the pub from around 1895-1926. 

See their website here.

The Most Myth-Laden: The Spaniard’s Inn

The Spaniards Inn sits relatively isolated at the top of Hampstead Heath on Spaniard’s Road. It was built originally in 1585 and its history is laden with myth and legend.

Some say it is named after the Spanish ambassador at the time of King James I, others say the name comes from two previous Spanish landlords Francisco and Juan Porero. They apparently fell out over a woman, fought a duel in which Juan was shot, killed and then buried in the garden of the inn. His ghost is still said to haunt it.

During the Gordon Riots of 1780, a group of rioters were on their way to Kenwood House, the home of the Chief Justice Lord Mansfield. The quick thinking landlord of the Spaniard’s Inn plied the group with so much beer, they got too drunk and never made it.

Amongst other tales, it is said to have hosted highwayman Dick Turpin (who is said to haunt the roadway outside), Bryon, Keats and Constable. It is also mentioned in Dicken’s Pickwick Papers and in Dracula.

See their website here.

The Most Hidden: Ye Olde Mitre

Ye Olde Mitre has got to be London’s most hidden pub, tucked away down a very narrow alleyway in Holborn. It was originally built in the 16th century to cater to the servants of the Bishop of Ely who owned a palace on this site until 1772.

The current building dates from 1773 at the same time the nearby Ely Place was laid out. Inside the pub behind a glass screen is what looks like a wooden beam. Legend states that it is what remains of a cherry tree, now part of the structure of the pub, that was once danced around by Queen Elizabeth I and one of her court favourites Sir Christopher Hatton, after whom neighbouring Hatton Garden is named. 

See their website here.

The Most Decorative: The Blackfriar

I love the wonderfully eccentric exterior of the Blackfriar. This wedge-shaped pub stands as Victorian survivor at a busy road junction by Blackfriars Station. It was built in 1875 and 30 years later was remodelled in the current style.

On the front sits a cheerful, chuckling friar: a nod to the history of the area as having once been the site of the Blackfriars monastery before it was dissolved by King Henry VIII in the 1530s. Inside are various other carvings, sculptures and decorative details of monks.

See their website here.

The Best Survivor: The Grapes, Limehouse

Considering the Grapes is in Limehouse, right in the heart of the East End, it is remarkable that it survived the Blitz. For example, it only very narrowly escaped the blast of a V1 rocket that landed nearby towards the end of the war.

There has been a pub on the site since 1583 with the current structure dating from the 1720s. Limehouse, with its seafaring links, has always been fascinating to London’s writers, visited by Dickens, written about by Arthur Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde. 

In 2011 the Grapes was purchased by Sir Ian Mckellen, film director Sean Mathius and businessman Evgeny Lebedev. It has a cosy, dark-panelled interior, oozing with history and maritime tales. 

See their website here.

The Best Riverside Views: The Prospect of Whitby 

The Prospect of Whitby has lovely views over the Thames from its riverside location in Wapping.

The current building is largely 19th century but there has been a pub here since 1520. Some of the flagstones are even said to date from the original pub. Originally called the Pelican, it gained the nickname the ‘Devil’s Tavern’, giving you an idea of its dastardly clientele.

On the beach behind the Prospect of Whitby is the replica noose, a reminder of the fact that it was very close to here where where pirates were once hanged, their bodies left dangling on the shoreline for the tides to wash over them.

See their website here.

The Best Origin Story: The Old Doctor Butler’s Head

The Old Doctor Butler’s Head is tucked away down a narrow alleyway behind Guildhall Yard in the City of London.

The current building is 19th century but there has been a pub here since 1610 and is named after, unsurprisingly, Dr William Butler, portrayed on the pub sign. Butler was a physician in the court of King James I and was known for some pretty bizarre treatments.

He developed Dr Butler’s Ale: a purgative drink for curing gastric problems: a pint of ale infused with various ingredients. Instead of being sold in an apothecary it was sold in pubs who often displayed an image of his head. 

See their website here.

The Oldest?: The Seven Stars, Holborn

The Seven Stars was established in 1602, fourteen years before Shakespeare died. It is possible that some interior features such as beams survive from that original construction today. 

The Seven Stars does not necessarily have any wild stories to tell but it has been quietly playing its trade here on a quiet backstreet in Holborn for over 400 years. It has a cosy, almost country-side ambience and has a distinct, ‘forgotten by time’ feel to it.

See their website here.

The Cosiest: The Dove, Hammersmith

The Dove is a lovely little pub, hidden down a lane in Hammersmith. It has low beams, walls plastered in pictures and memorabilia and a fire in the winter. It also has a brilliant terrace out the back for looking out over the river.

There has been a pub here since the 17th century but the current building is 18th century. It has a surprisingly large list of literary and artistic figures who have visited over the years including Ernest Hemingway, William Morris, who once lived next door, Dylan Thomas and Graham Greene. Local legend says that this is where James Thomson wrote the words to Rule Britannia in 1740.

Just to top it off its front bar holds the record for the smallest public bar in the UK. 

See their website here.

Honourable mentions

The Lamb and Flag, Covent Garden: the oldest pub in Covent Garden, once nicknamed the ‘Bucket of Blood’ due to the bare-knuckle boxing matches that took place here.

The Mayflower, Rotherhithe: the current building is a post-war build but it is very cosy, sits amongst the cobbled streets of Rotherhithe. It is not far from where the Pilgrim Fathers moored The Mayflower before setting off to the New World. 

The Flask, Highgate: the name relates to the spring water transported from Hampstead to Highgate for sale here

Princess Louise, Holborn: a lovely Victorian pub, even the toilets are listed. 

The Grenadier, Belgravia: constructed originally as a mess for the barracks behind and supposedly haunted by a murdered soldier

The Old Bank of England, Fleet Street: a beautiful, grand interior on Fleet Street

The Anchor, Bankside: has a long history at this site but feels rather modern inside today

The Jamaica Winehouse, St Michael’s Alley: where London’s first ever coffeehouse was opened

Ye Olde Watling, Bow Lane: built originally by Sir Christopher Wren for his workers working on St Paul’s

The Hoop and Grapes, Aldgate: narrowly survived the Great Fire and has a brilliantly wonky entrance

See a map of all the locations below, including the honourable mentions in orange.

For more of London’s amazing history, you can buy my Sunday Times bestselling guidebook to London’s quirks and oddities here.

Thank you for reading, more of London’s historical sites below: