London's pubs are living history. Behind their bar counters and low-beamed ceilings lie stories of highwaymen, playwrights, war heroes and the occasional ghost. Here are the tales behind the city's most historic watering holes.
London has been a drinking city for the better part of two thousand years. The Romans brewed ale here. Medieval alehouses clustered around the City walls. Tudor inns housed travellers and hosted plays. Georgian coffee houses gave way to Victorian gin palaces. And through it all, the pub endured, adapted and quietly became the beating heart of London life.
Our directory features over 30 historic pubs, many of which have been serving continuously for centuries. These are not museums. They are working pubs where you can still pull up a stool, order a pint and drink in the same rooms where Samuel Johnson argued, Dickens scribbled, and Dick Turpin planned his next robbery. Here are some of the best stories.
The Tudor and Stuart Pubs (1500s-1600s)
London's oldest surviving pubs date to the Tudor period, when alehouses were so numerous that the Crown attempted to regulate them through licensing laws. Several pubs in our directory can trace their history to this era, though most have been rebuilt at least once since.
Est. circa 1423
The Guinea Grill
Mayfair, Central London
The oldest establishment in our directory, The Guinea has stood on this Mayfair spot since 1423, when the surrounding area was open fields. The current building dates to the 18th century, but the pub's claim to continuous service stretches back to the reign of Henry VI. Today, the tiny pub bar leads to a legendary grill room serving some of London's finest aged steaks. Six centuries of pouring pints and the bar has not lost its charm.
Est. 1546
Ye Olde Mitre
Hatton Garden, Central London
Hidden down a tiny alley in Hatton Garden, this pub has been serving since 1546, when it was built for the servants of the Bishop of Ely. The trunk of a cherry tree around which Elizabeth I is said to have danced with Sir Christopher Hatton is preserved inside, behind glass. Finding the pub is half the fun: look for a narrow passage between 8 and 9 Hatton Garden. The sign is tiny. Many Londoners who have lived here for decades have never found it.
Est. circa 1520
The Prospect of Whitby
Wapping, East London
London's oldest riverside pub, established around 1520 in Wapping when the area was a nest of sailors, smugglers and pirates. The pewter-topped bar and flagstone floors survive from an earlier age. Hanging Judge Jeffreys, notorious for his brutal sentences, is said to have drunk here and watched executions from the balcony. Nearby Execution Dock was where pirates and maritime criminals were put to death, their bodies left until three tides had washed over them. A hangman's noose still hangs outside as a grim reminder.
Est. circa 1520
The Mayflower
Rotherhithe, South London
This Rotherhithe pub claims to be where the Pilgrim Fathers moored their ship, the Mayflower, before setting sail for America in 1620. Whether or not the story is precisely true, the pub certainly existed in some form at the time. It is one of only a handful of London pubs licensed to sell postage stamps, a relic of its days serving the riverside community. The wooden jetty over the Thames is magical at sunset.
Est. 1585
The Spaniards Inn
Hampstead, North London
Perched on the edge of Hampstead Heath,
The Spaniards Inn has been serving since 1585. The highwayman Dick Turpin is said to have been born here, and Keats wrote part of "Ode to a Nightingale" in the garden. Dickens mentioned it in The Pickwick Papers. The pub's toll-booth-narrow entrance was once used to slow down horse-drawn traffic. Over four centuries later, it still causes a bottleneck. Some things in London never change.
Est. 1583
The Grapes
Limehouse, East London
A tiny, wondrously atmospheric Thames-side pub in Limehouse that has been serving since 1583. Dickens used it as the model for the Six Jolly Fellowship Porters in Our Mutual Friend. Today, it is owned by Sir Ian McKellen, who can occasionally be spotted behind the bar pulling pints. The upstairs fish restaurant is excellent, and the Thames balcony is one of East London's best-kept secrets. From Dickens to Gandalf: quite a pedigree.
"There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn." — Samuel Johnson, 1776
The Great Fire and Rebuilding (1660s-1700s)
The Great Fire of London in 1666 destroyed most of the City's medieval pubs. What rose from the ashes were sturdier buildings, many of which survive today. This period also saw the rise of the coaching inn, designed to accommodate travellers and their horses.
Rebuilt 1667
Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese
Fleet Street, Central London
Rebuilt just after the Great Fire of London, this Fleet Street institution is a maze of dark, vaulted cellars and cosy nooks that feel genuinely medieval. Samuel Johnson, whose house was around the corner, was a regular. Dickens drank here. Mark Twain visited. The pub's cellar rooms are so atmospheric that drinking in them feels like time travel. The vaulted rooms downstairs are the real prize, and most tourists miss them entirely.
Est. 1676
The George
Southwark, Central London
London's last surviving galleried coaching inn, now owned by the National Trust. Shakespeare almost certainly drank at an earlier version of the pub, which stood near the Globe Theatre. The current building dates to 1676, and the cobbled courtyard with its wooden galleries looks much as it would have to travellers arriving by stagecoach. Parliament once tried to demolish it. The National Trust stepped in. London owes them a pint.
The Literary Pubs (1700s-1900s)
London's pubs have always attracted writers, and many of the city's greatest literary works were conceived, written or at least inspired within pub walls.
Est. circa 1730
The Newman Arms
Fitzrovia, Central London
A regular haunt of George Orwell when he worked nearby at the BBC during the war. The tiny pub inspired the "prole pub" in Nineteen Eighty-Four, and you can see why: it has the intimate, unpolished character of a pub that exists for its regulars rather than for show. The famous pie room upstairs has been serving steak and kidney pies for decades, and the recipe has barely changed. Orwell would recognise the place. That is probably the highest compliment you can pay it.
Est. 1602
Seven Stars
Holborn, Central London
Built in 1602 behind the Royal Courts of Justice, the
Seven Stars survived the Great Fire of London and has been pouring ales for over four centuries. Run for many years by the legendary Roxy Beaujolais, it became a favourite of barristers and legal eagles who cross the road from the courts. There is almost always a pub cat in residence. The pub's fiercely independent spirit is a reminder that not every London pub needs to be part of a chain.
The Victorian Gin Palaces (1800s)
The Victorian era transformed London's pubs from basic drinking houses into architectural showpieces. The "gin palace" movement produced some of the most ornate pub interiors in the world, with etched glass, polished mahogany, ornate tilework and gleaming brass.
Victorian era
The Princess Louise
Holborn, Central London
A jewel of Victorian pub architecture with original etched mirrors, ornate tiling and magnificent carved wooden partitions. Recently restored to its former glory, every detail gleams. It is a Sam Smith's pub, meaning pints are incredibly cheap for central London. The gents' toilets are Grade II listed, which may be the most Victorian fact in this entire article.
Victorian era
The Blackfriar
Blackfriars, Central London
An Art Nouveau masterpiece near Blackfriars Bridge, adorned with marble, bronze and mosaic monks depicting various virtues and vices. The wedge-shaped building was nearly demolished in the 1960s until Sir John Betjeman, the Poet Laureate, led a public campaign to save it. The back room grotto, with its vaulted ceiling covered in mosaics and bronze reliefs, is one of the most extraordinary pub interiors in Britain. Betjeman knew what he was saving.
Victorian era
The Lamb
Bloomsbury, Central London
A gorgeous Victorian pub in Bloomsbury with original etched glass "snob screens": rare revolving glass partitions that let Victorian drinkers hide from the bar staff and, more importantly, from each other. Only a handful of these survive anywhere in London. The polished wood and gleaming brass of The Lamb transport you to an era when a visit to the pub was a private affair, conducted behind frosted glass with a gin in hand.
Wartime and the 20th Century
World War II
The French House
Soho, Central London
Soho's legendary bohemian pub served as the unofficial headquarters of the Free French during World War II. Charles de Gaulle is said to have drafted his famous rallying speech to the French nation from an upstairs room, though this is part of the pub's rich mythology rather than verified history. The pub's rule of serving only half pints of beer dates from the 1920s, when a brawl between French sailors smashing pint glasses led the landlord to ban full pints. The rule persists to this day. Do not ask for a pint. You will not get one. Order wine instead: the list is superb, and it is what the French Resistance would have wanted.
1955
The Magdala
Hampstead, North London
A Hampstead pub with a dark claim to fame: it is where Ruth Ellis shot her lover David Blakely on Easter Sunday 1955, becoming the last woman to be hanged in Britain. Marks in the exterior wall are pointed out as bullet holes, though some historians believe they were drilled by a later landlady to add to the story. The pub reopened in 2021 after a seven-year closure and has since won CAMRA's North London Pub of the Year award, but the history is inescapable.
London's pub history is not frozen in time. It continues to be written. Community campaigns have saved pubs like The Wenlock Arms and The Ivy House from developers. The gastropub revolution, started at The Eagle in Clerkenwell in 1991, transformed what pub food could be. And pubs like The Harwood Arms proved that a Michelin star and a proper pint could coexist in the same building.
Every time you walk through a pub door in London, you are stepping into a story. The walls hold more history than most museums. The difference is, at the end of the tour, you can order another round.
Explore London's historic pubs
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