Halloween Pub Crawl London 2026: A Saturday-Night Plan from Fleet Street to Spitalfields

Start here precisely because it shuts first: Saturday hours are listed as 11am–9pm, which makes it a mid-afternoon meeting point rather than a finale. The story goes that Sir Christopher Wren built it in the 1670s for the masons rebuilding St Bride's after the Great Fire, a claim rather than proven fact, and the Grade II listed building has been much altered since. Behind the elaborate stained-glass window are a U-shaped bar, worn and uneven floorboards, half-height panelling and walls crowded with old press cuttings from the decades when printers and journalists drank here side by side. Look for the carved corner cupboard at the back, dated 1603 and decorated with axes and daggers, a suitably grim detail for the date. Nicholson's Pale Ale and changing guest ales are on the bar, and the back door opens onto the quiet St Bride's churchyard. Tables can be booked; check its page for current hours before fixing the meet time.

Further along Fleet Street, up the narrow alley of Wine Office Court, the Cheese is the City's great Halloween warren. There has been a pub here since 1538, rebuilt in 1667 after the Great Fire, and inside it unfolds over several levels of small, dim rooms with little natural light, ancient panelling and big fireplaces that are lit in winter. The vaulted cellars may be older than everything above them; one theory ties them to a 13th-century Carmelite monastery, though that is unproven. Dickens is said to have drunk here, and Polly, a parrot famous for her swearing, remains on display, stuffed, a century after her death made international headlines. For a group, the run of rooms from the Cellar Bar to the Chop Room gives you several chances at space, and steak and kidney pudding with Samuel Smith's cask bitter lines the stomach early. Saturday hours are listed as midday–11pm; check its page before relying on them.

Over the river on Park Street, between Borough Market and Shakespeare's Globe, the Anchor is the obvious place to book the mid-crawl meal, and it brings Bankside's murkier past with it. It began as the tap room of the Anchor Brewery, was rebuilt in 1676 after a fire, and is described as the last survivor of the riverside inns of Shakespeare's theatreland, used by actors from the Globe, the Swan and the Rose. Historians generally believe it was the 'little alehouse on bankside' where Pepys sheltered and watched the Great Fire spread. Later it became a haunt of river pirates and smugglers: repairs in the early 1800s uncovered hiding places behind a massive oak beam, and legend adds a room reached by a vertical shaft where escaped prisoners from the Clink paid to hide. On a dark October night, settle in among the exposed beams rather than out on the terrace, and order fish and chips or a pie before moving on.

A short walk away off Borough High Street, London's last galleried coaching inn is the handsomest stop on the route. An inn is recorded here from 1542; the present building went up in 1676–77 after a Southwark fire, and it is the only purpose-built London pub listed Grade I. Downstairs is a maze of small rooms, creaky stairs and corridors; upstairs, panelled rooms are reached only along the two tiers of galleries, their woodwork visibly warped with age. Dickens mentions the George in Little Dorrit, and a plaque claims Shakespeare knew its hospitality, though that is legend rather than record. The catch for a booked group is the big cobbled courtyard, which is walk-in only, so any reserved table will be indoors, no hardship in rooms like these. Listed Saturday hours run to midnight, buying breathing room before the East End leg; check its page for what's on that night.

This is where the night ends, and where Halloween feels most at home: Thursday to Saturday hours are listed to 1am. The four-storey Victorian corner pub beside Spitalfields Market dates from 1851, but its name goes back to the 1780s, when Christ Church across the road installed ten new bells. Inside, the Grade II listed tiling and two large tiled murals, one showing a weaver's shop in old Spitalfields, are the reason to linger. Then there is the Ripper. Some accounts link victims Annie Chapman and Mary Jane Kelly to the pub, though the connection is supposed rather than proven, and from 1976 to 1988 it was even named after him, until a Reclaim the Night campaign won the old name back. A ghostly old man in Victorian dress is said to walk the halls. Head upstairs for an East End Negroni or stay below with London Beer Factory beer. Booking isn't listed, so expect to wait; confirm hours on its page.

Groups that want a guaranteed table in the East End should look east along Whitechapel Road, to a pub built in 1894 with a past darker than any costume. On 9 March 1966 George Cornell was sitting at the bar when Ronnie Kray walked in and shot him, a killing that helped put the twins away. The name comes from the legend of Henry de Montfort, a Norman knight said to have been blinded at Evesham and left to wander, and the Salvation Army traces its beginnings to William Booth preaching on the spot, or just in front of it, in 1865. For the last night of October, the decked pergola garden earns its place: covered areas, heat burners and a heated outside bar. Tables can be booked and Saturday hours run to midnight, so you could slot it in before the Ten Bells for a later final stop.

Not everyone wants a 1am finish in Spitalfields. For a calmer ending after Borough, head east along the south bank to Rotherhithe Street, where a pub has stood since the 1780s, then called the Spread Eagle and Crown, on the site of an older 16th-century inn. Its name and Pilgrim Fathers story arrived with a 1957 refurbishment after war damage, and its grander claims, oldest pub on the Thames and launch point of the Mayflower, come with a healthy 'supposedly'. None of that matters once you are inside: dark timber beams, low ceilings, dangling mugs and an open fire in the small bar, with a wooden jetty outside looking across the river towards the Canary Wharf skyline. The upstairs dining room is known for good food at good value and is hard to get into without a booking, so contact the pub before arriving with a group. Saturday hours are listed to 11pm.