Best pubs in London
From gastropubs to capital boozers, Time Out recommends 50 great pubs in London
Fancy a pint? Glass of wine? Gin and tonic? Of course you do, and living in London you're not short of places to find them. If you're looking for a great pub in London check out our critics' top 50 picks.
Pubs in Soho
Dog & Duck
A reliable Soho standard for decades, with pleasingly unmolested decor and interesting, well-kept beer. It’s a survivor of the literary Soho of old.
Read Dog & Duck review
- 18 Bateman Street, W1D 3AJ
French House
As Gallic as a damp baguette, this famous Dean Street wine shop, from where General de Gaulle hosted the Free French fight against Hitler/a four-year lunch, is long on beer in halves and les vins Français but, nonetheless, the best pub in Soho.
Read French House review
- 49 Dean Street, W1D 5BG
Pubs in Covent Garden
Harp
Last year’s Camra Pub of the Year isn’t much on paper – a bar and a corridor with a back alley for smokers. But get inside in the late morning before it fills and wander through the incredible selection of beer and ciders, served by friendly, knowledgeable staff, and you’ll soon see why it made our list.
Read Harp review
- 47 Chandos Place, WC2N 4HS
Pubs in Fitzrovia
Bradley's Spanish Bar
Bradley’s may call itself a bar, but it’s indisputably one of the West End’s few great pubs, and home to London’s most appealing jukebox, a vinyl-driven, genre-spanning monster. The Spanish lager is pricy, but Londoners still love this place and spill on to the road outside in summer months, inevitably angering cab drivers.
Read Bradley's Spanish Bar review
- 42-44 Hanway Street, W1T 1UT
Newman Arms
There's been a business located at this gateway to a cobbled alleyway since 1730 – see the red sign outside and etched writing over the bar – but as a pub it had its heyday in the mid 20th century, when George Orwell was a regular and Michael Powell filmed here. Both men get a decorative look-in, the pub's 101 minutes of movie fame marked by an Italian poster (1960's L'Occhio che uccide, aka Peeping Tom).
Read Newman Arms review
- 23 Rathbone Street, W1T 1NG
Pubs in Clerkenwell
Craft Beer Company
One of the most exciting beer selections in the city sees 37 of them on draught and a doorstopper of a list that includes rarely seen brews from the world over.
Read Craft Beer Company review
- 82 Leather Lane, EC1N 7TR
Fox & Anchor
This Smithfield boozer proves renovation can be sympathetic. No purple banquettes or flock wallpaper, just gleaming tankards, dark wood and outrageously good pub grub. Six stylish bedrooms too, if you’re overcome by pies.
Read Fox & Anchor review
- 115 Charterhouse Street, EC1M 6AA
Jerusalem Tavern
Appropriately enough, the St Peter’s Brewery’s only London pub is a place of pilgrimage for those in search of its full range of award-winning beers. Fill your belly, warm your soul and toast your bum in front of a coal fire.
Read Jerusalem Tavern review
- 55 Britton Street, EC1M 5UQ
Rugby Tavern
In its favour: a Shepherd Neame pub with well-kept ale and the welcome of a proper local in the back streets of Bloomsbury. The downside: it’s closed at weekends.
Read Rugby Tavern review
- 19 Great James St, WC1N 3ES
The Yorkshire Grey
If George Orwell drank at every pub that claims him, he wouldn’t have made it to Wigan Pier, let alone Catalonia. But as the Grey is just around the corner from the BBC, we can assume he did take advantage of what is the best fireside snug in Fitzrovia.
Read The Yorkshire Grey review
- 29-33 , Grays Inn Rd, WC1X 8PN
Ye Olde Mitre Tavern
This spooky ancient tavern is where Dan Brown would buy a beer if he was in town. Shadowy alleys lead into a medieval courtyard where a sign reveals Ye Olde Mitre was built by Bishop Goodrich in 1546.
Read Ye Olde Mitre Tavern review
- 1 Ely Court, (Ely Place side of 8 Hatton Garden), EC1N 6SJ
Pubs in the City
Jamaica Wine House
A secretive drinking den in an alley that manages to evoke memories of countless handshakes, tip-offs and clandestine collusions.
Read Jamaica Wine House review
- St Michael's Alley, (Cornhill), EC3V 9DS
Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese
This Fleet Street landmark was rebuilt back in 1667 ('in the reign of King Charles II'), and its seventeenth-century history is in large part responsible for its twenty-first-century appeal. The royals to have been served thereafter are painstakingly listed outside in a higgledy-piggledy passageway, drawing in dozens of tourists a day to the pub's baffling labyrinth of rooms.
Read Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese review
- 145 Fleet Street, EC4A 2BU
Pubs in Holborn and Bloomsbury
Princess Louise
This princess is actually the queen of Yorkshire brewer Samuel Smith’s collection of central London pubs. With half-a-dozen ornately-carved, sumptuously-tiled bar areas under one high stucco ceiling, it’s a sensational building, selling, of course, Smith’s array of sanely priced pints.
Read Princess Louise review
- 208-209 High Holborn, WC1V 7BW
The Queen's Head
A super little neighbourhood pub in Bloomsbury with an inspired beer selection, cheese and meat boards, and thoughtful design touches. There’s live music, comedy and a regular quiz.
Read The Queen's Head review
- 15 Denman Street London, W1D 7HN
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