Museum Tavern

Inevitably pandering to tourists who flock to the British Museum opposite – note the £5 T-shirts behind the bar – this attractive, traditional hostelry also appeals to Londoners with a taste for decent ales.

Harvey’s Sussex Best, Timothy Taylor Landlord, Theakston Old Peculiar, Daleside Spring Frenzy, Young’s Gold, Hobgoblin and Fuller’s London Pride line a bar counter also stocked with Hendrick’s gin, Cockburn’s port, Pimm’s, and Glenmorangie, Laphroaig and Talisker whiskies – British or what?

These bottles beckon before a beautiful gilt-mirrored back bar, evidence of the major mid-1800s refurb of this tavern, then the Dog & Duck, which has been operating from the 1700s (when this area was surrounded by marshes, and not crocodiles of cagouled Italians and the stench of over-priced hot dogs). The food – soup, pie, sausage, roast, puddings – exudes homely familiarity.