At a glance
Five London pubs chosen for the room itself. Scan the list, then jump to the ones that catch your eye.
| # | Pub | Area | Known for | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Blackfriar | City of London | Art Nouveau friars, marble and bronze | 4.5 |
| 2 | The Viaduct Tavern | City of London | Victorian gin palace opposite the Old Bailey | 4.4 |
| 3 | Old Bank of England | Westminster (Fleet Street) | Gilded banking-hall interior | 4.4 |
| 4 | Princess Louise | Holborn | Restored Victorian gin palace and snugs | 4.4 |
| 5 | The Champion | Fitzrovia | Stained glass of British heroes | 4.3 |
Where they are
All 5 pubs on one map — click a pin to jump to that section.
The Blackfriar
City of LondonA wedge-shaped pub by Blackfriars Bridge, rebuilt as an Art Nouveau tribute to the friary that stood here — mosaics, bronze friars, and a vaulted ceiling.
The Blackfriar sits on the site of a medieval Dominican friary. The present building went up in 1875, then architect Herbert Fuller-Clark and sculptor Henry Poole turned it into an Art Nouveau set-piece in the early 20th century. Marble, mosaics, stained glass, and bronze reliefs of jolly, wine-loving friars run around a curved bar under a vaulted ceiling, with wood panelling closing the room in. It is Grade II listed, small, and almost impossible to confuse with any other pub in the City. The interior is the visit; the beer is what you do once you have stopped looking up.
- 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 Viaduct Tavern
City of London
An 1869 gin palace on Newgate Street — etched glass, mahogany, and plasterwork, with the Old Bailey across the road.
Opened in 1869, The Viaduct Tavern is one of the City's surviving gin palaces, facing the Old Bailey on a street that once looked onto Newgate Prison. The room still reads as late Victorian opulence: etched glass, polished mahogany, ornate plasterwork, and a decorated ceiling that does more work than the bar. Local lore says the cellar incorporates cells from the old prison, which suits a pub this theatrical. Daylight is the time to see the glass and the plaster; evenings fill up with the after-work crowd from the courts and the offices around St Paul's.
- Address
- 126 Newgate St, London EC1A 7AA, UK
- Rating
- 4.4 (131 reviews)
- Opening hours
- Mon–Fri midday–9:30pm · Sat midday–7pm · Sun midnight–midnight Full hours
Old Bank of England
Westminster (Fleet Street)
A former Bank of England branch on Fleet Street, with gilded ceilings, chandeliers, marble pillars, and murals under a soaring roof.
This was a Bank of England branch, built in the 1880s for the law-courts side of the business, and the room never quite stopped being a banking hall. The ceiling is high and gilded, the pillars are polished marble, and chandeliers plus tall arched windows light the woodwork. Murals around the walls take British banking as their subject, which is a very Fleet Street way to decorate a pub. It is a Fuller's house, busy with the lawyers and journalists who still work this stretch. Fleet Street folklore also ties the cellars to the Sweeney Todd legend; the hall above them is the reason to walk in.
- 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
Princess Louise
Holborn
A Holborn gin palace named for Queen Victoria's daughter — tiled walls, etched mirrors, mahogany, and a run of private snugs.
Princess Louise is a high-Victorian gin palace that got its room back. Named for Queen Victoria's daughter, it was built as a showpiece and later restored so the tiling, etched-glass mirrors, and dark mahogany read the way they were meant to. The plan is a series of snugs, the small partitioned booths that let drinkers keep to themselves. The plasterwork and chandeliers overhead are the set-piece. It is still a Samuel Smith's pub, which is why the restoration lands: the glamour is in the joinery, and the pint is still the point.
- Address
- 208 High Holborn, London WC1V 7EP, UK
- Rating
- 4.4 (66 reviews)
- Opening hours
- Mon–Sat midday–11pm · Sun midday–10am Full hours
The Champion
FitzroviaA Wells Street local whose stained-glass windows each pick out a British hero — dark wood, a fireplace, and a room that glows when the light hits the glass.
The Champion is easy to walk past on Wells Street, and a mistake to skip if you care about glass. The windows are the interior: a run of stained-glass portraits of British heroes and heroines, warming a room of dark wood panelling and an open fire. It sits in Fitzrovia, a short walk from the Soho grid, and it feels like a neighbourhood pub dressed for a history lesson. It is the smallest room on this list, and the one to pick when you want the glass to yourself.
- Address
- 12-13 Wells St, London W1T 3PA, UK
- Rating
- 4.3 (100 reviews)
- Opening hours
- Mon–Sat 12:00–11pm · Sun 3:00–10pm Full hours
Want more than five?
These five rooms are a solid start, but London is full of pubs worth walking into just to look up. Browse by neighbourhood, filter by vibe, or spin the wheel if you want the city to pick your next pint.
Written by
Freddie Bermingham