10 Best Historic Pubs in London You Need to Visit

A former Bank of England branch with soaring ceilings and chandeliers — plus a dark link to the Sweeney Todd legend under Fleet Street.

Housed in a genuinely former Bank of England branch, this Fleet Street pub trades on an interior most bars can only dream of — soaring ceilings, ornate chandeliers, and a grandeur that feels more banking hall than boozer. It's also tangled up in one of London's darkest urban legends: the building's cellars are said to connect via tunnel to the barber shop on the site of the real Sweeney Todd, with the pub itself sitting on the reputed site of his pie shop. Legend aside, it's a solid Fuller's house popular with the lawyers and journalists who've worked this stretch of Fleet Street for generations.

Address

194 Fleet St, London EC4A 2LT, UK

Rating

4.4 (171 reviews)

Opening hours

Mon–Wed 11am–10:30pm · Thu–Sat 11am–11pm · Sun 11am–9pm Full hours

You'll spot it before you arrive — thousands of flowers smother the façade, opening into a Thai restaurant conservatory out back.

You'll spot The Churchill Arms before you reach it — the exterior is smothered in an eye-popping, ever-changing display of thousands of flowers and hanging baskets, one of the most photographed pub fronts in London. Inside is just as distinctive: a cluttered, characterful collection of Churchill memorabilia, butterflies, and vintage bric-a-brac packed onto every surface, opening out into a Thai restaurant conservatory at the rear. A proper only-in-London combination of traditional boozer and unexpected curry house.

Address

119 Kensington Church St, London W8 7LN, UK

Rating

4.5 (143 reviews)

Opening hours

Mon–Sat midday–9:30pm · Sun midday–9pm Full hours

A narrow-alley Covent Garden classic once nicknamed "The Bucket of Blood" — small, wood-panelled, and often standing-room only.

Tucked down a narrow alley just off Covent Garden's main drag, The Lamb & Flag is one of the area's oldest surviving pubs, with a building history stretching back to the 1770s and a pub trading here since at least the early 1600s. It once carried the considerably less charming nickname "The Bucket of Blood," a nod to the bare-knuckle boxing matches once held in its upstairs room. Charles Dickens was a regular. Small, wood-panelled, and unapologetically traditional — expect to be standing outside with a pint in hand on any evening it's not raining.

Address

33 Rose St, London WC2E 9EB, UK

Rating

4.5 (220 reviews)

Opening hours

Mon–Sat midday–9:30pm · Sun midday–8:30pm Full hours

London's best-hidden pub: down a nearly invisible Holborn alley since 1546, with a cherry-tree trunk built into the bar.

Arguably London's best-hidden pub, Ye Olde Mitre sits down a nearly invisible alleyway between Hatton Garden and Ely Place, and was first built in 1546 for the servants of the Bishop of Ely's London palace. The centrepiece is a preserved cherry tree trunk built into the corner of the front bar, said locally to be the remains of a maypole that Elizabeth I once danced around. No music, no big screens, no fruit machines — just a handful of tiny snugs and a well-kept range of traditional ales.

Address

1 Ely Ct, Ely Pl, London EC1N 6SJ, UK

Rating

4.7 (211 reviews)

Opening hours

Mon–Fri midday–9:30pm · Sat midday–4pm · Sun midnight–midnight Full hours

A wedge-shaped Grade II listed Art Nouveau pub covered in jovial friars — worth the visit for the interior alone.

A genuine architectural one-off: this wedge-shaped, Grade II listed pub near Blackfriars station is decorated top to bottom in an Art Nouveau tribute to the Dominican friary that once stood on the site, with marble walls, bronze reliefs, and a frieze of jovial, wine-loving friars running around the room. It's worth a visit for the interior alone, regardless of what's on tap — though the beer selection holds up its end too.

Address

174 Queen Victoria St, Greater, London EC4V 4EG, UK

Rating

4.5 (201 reviews)

Opening hours

Mon–Tue 11am–11pm · Wed–Fri 11am–11:30pm · Sat 11am–11pm · Sun 12:00–10:30pm Full hours

The pub that invented the modern gastropub in 1991 — open kitchen, daily chalkboard, still unpretentious three decades on.

Widely credited as the pub that invented the modern gastropub when it opened in 1991, The Eagle set the template that hundreds of London pubs have followed since: an open kitchen behind the bar, a chalkboard menu that changes daily, and food good enough to be the main reason people come. Three decades on, it's kept its no-frills, unpretentious room rather than cashing in on the reputation — still one of the best simple, proper meals you'll get in a pub in this part of town.

Address

159 Farringdon Rd, London EC1R 3AL, UK

Rating

4.5 (155 reviews)

Opening hours

Mon–Sat 12:00–11pm · Sun 12:00–5pm Full hours

Harvey's Brewery's rare London tied house — proper cask ales in a small, unspoiled Southwark room with no fuss.

A rare London tied house for Sussex's Harvey's Brewery, this unassuming backstreet Southwark pub is a proper destination for real ale drinkers — the full range of Harvey's cask ales, kept and served the way they're meant to be, in a small, unspoiled, distinctly un-gastropubbed room. No music, no TV, no fuss: just one of the most respected traditional pubs south of the river.

Address

44 Tabard St, London SE1 4JU, UK

Rating

4.5 (125 reviews)

Opening hours

Mon–Sat 11am–11pm · Sun 12:00–9pm Full hours

A creaking 16th-century Thames-side pub that inspired Dickens — co-owned by Ian McKellen, with a terrace over the water.

A narrow, creaking 16th-century riverside pub on a quiet stretch of the Thames in Limehouse, The Grapes is best known as the inspiration for "The Six Jolly Fellowship Porters" in Charles Dickens' Our Mutual Friend. More recently it's been co-owned by Sir Ian McKellen, who's known to pop in. The small back terrace hanging directly over the water is the main draw — grab a spot there with a plate from the upstairs seafood restaurant if you can.

Address

76 Narrow St, London E14 8BP, UK

Rating

4.5 (53 reviews)

Opening hours

Mon midday–10pm · Tue–Thu midday–4pm · Fri–Sun midday–11pm Full hours

Widely regarded as the oldest pub on the Thames — named for the ship that moored nearby before the Pilgrim Fathers sailed in 1620.

Widely regarded as the oldest pub on the Thames, The Mayflower takes its name from the ship that moored nearby before picking up the Pilgrim Fathers on its way to America in 1620 — the pub's own jetty juts out over the river on the same stretch of water. It's one of the very few pubs in the country licensed to sell both UK and US postage stamps, a nod to that transatlantic history. Low beams, creaking wooden floors, and a small deck built out over the water make it worth the trip out to Rotherhithe on its own.

Address

117 Rotherhithe St, London SE16 4NF, UK

Rating

4.7 (74 reviews)

Opening hours

Mon–Sat 12:00–11pm · Sun 12:00–10pm Full hours

A 16th-century coaching inn on Hampstead Heath with Dick Turpin folklore, literary cameos, and one of London's best beer gardens.

A 16th-century coaching inn right on the edge of Hampstead Heath, The Spaniards Inn has picked up an unusually large amount of folklore for one building: it's the pub most associated with the legend of highwayman Dick Turpin, who's said to have used it as a hideout, and it gets a mention in both Dickens' The Pickwick Papers and Bram Stoker's Dracula. Keats reportedly wrote "Ode to a Nightingale" after a visit to the garden. That garden is still the main draw today — one of the largest and most popular beer gardens this side of London, complete with its own dog-washing station for Heath walkers.

Address

Spaniards Rd, London NW3 7JJ, UK

Rating

4.4 (172 reviews)

Opening hours

Mon 12:00–11pm · Tue–Sat 10am–11pm · Sun 11:30am–10:30pm Full hours