The most-loved bars and pubs in London

In recent years this brick and timber 1930s boozer has become south east London’s favourite unofficial queer venue, thanks to an array of campy entertainment including drag and cabaret, plus queer speed-dating events and nights like Flapjack and Pop-Up Dyke Bar. Drinkers and diners are also all happy here; the former get a sterling selection of cask and craft ales, plus cocktails and an acceptable wine list. The latter get a menu that changes regularly, depending on the pop-up kitchen – at the moment its some of the best pizza in London, courtesy of Dough Hands – plus hefty Sunday roasts. There’s plenty of seating: at large wooden tables next to the central bar, in the back garden and in the front yard facing Nunhead Green. It might also be the only pub in London with a shrine to Britney Spears. And the name? A nunnery once occuped this site; the rebellious Mother Superior was murdered during the Reformation and her head stuck on a pikestaff on the green. Lovely stuff!

This Soho institution may have mellowed somewhat since self-proclaimed ‘London’s rudest landlord’ Norman Balon finally hung up his polishing cloth in 2006, but there’s still plenty to make it stand out from the crowd, including a rotating cast of excellent independent ales and their own line of merch. Decor, meanwhile, is stuck firmly in the past, with carpets worn threadbare by decades of post-work sessions as well as wood-pannelled walls from the 1970s, and vintage logos of Double Diamond and Ind Coop displayed behind the bar. It all adds up to a curious mix of old-timey standards and progressive ideas which, crucially, work together like a charm.  Time Out tip They might not serve food, but they do have an impeccable array of crisps aka ‘London's greatest tuckshop’. Make ours a bag of pickled onion Monster Munch. 

The Shakespeares Head may look a little daunting from the outside. Don’t be shy: this salt-of-the-earth local extends a warm welcome to all. It’s hard to imagine a pub with fewer pretensions than this place, done out in gloss-painted wood, standard-issue pub carpets and plump seating. But this old-school boozer is made notable by the people in it: the staff, for whom nothing is too much trouble; and the clientele, an easygoing mix of theatregoers (Sadler’s Wells is steps away) and talkative locals who’ve been drinking here since their dads brought them in for a pint on their 18th birthday. It’s a mix mimicked on the walls, where signed photos of thesps and hoofers jostle for attention with the pictures of the locals out on a jolly. Quite a treasure, in its way.

Rare is the pub that opens at 8am and isn’t around the corner from an early morning meat market (or a Wetherspoons). The Angel – which is from the same team as Highgate’s primo gastropub the Red Lion & Sun – is bucking the trend with a classy breakfast bistro offering, before easing punters into lunchtime wine and evening feasts (though not on Sun-Tue, when it shuts up shop at 6pm - they’re not maniacs). Booze begins at 10am, if you’re wondering, with a kimchi bloody mary one of the more acceptable pre-lunch libations on offer.  Formerly the unremarkable Angel Inn, the Angel relaunched in 2025 on a prominent corner of the quaint Highgate High Street, well aware that it needed to offer something different in an area already packed with exceptional pubs. Despite being super close to the aforementioned Red Lion & Sun, ever-popular Flask, cosy Prince of Wales and Americana-themed Dukes of Highgate, the Angel stands out. Airy and bright, the space feels more like a Parisian brasserie than a north London boozer, with classy touches such as elegant fairground-styled painted logos for your pints rather than ugly branded pump clips. Kippers, full english brekkies and a selection of pastries are available until 5pm, after which the evening menu kicks in, with the likes of bavette steak and chips, confit duck leg, and Wagyu double cheeseburger up for grabs. But this isn’t one of the gastropubs where you’ll be sneered at for only ordering booze - from what we can see on our visit,...

One of London’s cosiest LGBT+ boozers. Just off the main Columbia Road drag, its Sunday roasts are pretty special (served from 12-5pm, with booking recommended) - as is the impressive, and every so slightly NSFW wall-art of various hand-drawn, cartoon genitals. There’s also drag queen-hosted karaoke every Saturday night from 8pm. Wetherspoons it certainly ain’t.

This is a proper old-school boozer: think massive TV screens, swirly carpeting that’s absorbed decades’ worth of secrets and a menu that runs all the way from crisps to nuts. But when the Grade II-listed building (replete with stained-glass windows) is this beautiful and the karaoke nights are this legendary, what more do you need? The pub was originally built in the 1930s for Truman’s Brewery and you sense the atmosphere is little-changed since. Fun fact: The Army and Navy featured in the 2024 Netflix drama Baby Reindeer, though its scenes were actually set in Edinburgh. The magic of telly, eh? Order food in While there’s no food prepared on-site, The Army and Navy has teamed up with Yard Sale to make pizza available to order in. This kind of arrangement always feels a bit a naughty somehow, which is part of the fun. Invite everyone The beer garden is huge, with covered seating and a lovely mural that depicts people milling about a picturesque park. Fittingly, there are enough uncovered benches for an entire squadron. RECOMMENDED: Stoke Newington area guide.

It might look like a classic London pub from the outside, all Britain in Bloom-worthy hanging baskets and an extremely pub-like name picked out in gold lettering, but the Camberwell Arms is not a place to watch the footie or sink eight pints and waddle home semi-conscious (maybe try the Hermits Cave across the road for such tomfoolery). Locals have known this for the past decade, ever since the grand Victorian boozer was given a serious sprucing up in 2014 under the auspices of chef director Mike Davies. Mike had form; starting out at one of south London’s original gastropubs, the Anchor & Hope in Waterloo, before setting up another south London institution, the much-loved hipster HQ that is Frank’s rooftop bar in Peckham.  ‘Sublime’ doesn’t even begin to do it justice. It is nothing less than art Since then, the Camberwell Arms has remained the very picture of modesty. Settle into the spacious back room, an airy but still-intimate space, and the lack of fanfare (stripped wooden floorboards and the occasional stylish print is about as close to grandiose design as it gets here) only goes to prove how confident they are in the quality of the food. Who needs jazzed-up interiors when the cooking is this compelling?  The menu is short but not too short, seasonal without being smug, and features a wry nod to the room’s pub past; a starter of beer onions on toast with aged gruyère. It’s a frankly indecent snack, snaked with sloppy boozed-up ribbons of onions, the particularly...

Miraculously, this supremely unpretentious little boozer continues to thrive just off Brick Lane, its modest charms seemingly not appealing to the whinnying fashionistas of Shoreditch or the suited-and-booted city curry hunters. The lively mixed crowd in here includes an old guard of regulars, the odd bewildered tourist and some thirtysomething art and music types relieved to find their East End bolthole still as welcoming as ever, while behind the tiny bar, a surprising number of unflappable staff dispense beautifully kept ales without treading on each other's toes. The beer selection is unlikely to be exotic, keeping to familiar British ales from Fuller’s, Truman and some smaller breweries. A little shabby around the edges perhaps - 'A pub with carpet? How quaint' - but this is a London drinker with character rather than an image.

Some pubs are a work of art, but Mayfair’s Audley Public House takes the idea to the next level. Iwan and Manuela Wirth, founders of the renowned Hauser and Wirth galleries, re-launched this impressive Victorian gin palace in 2022. And ‘impressive’ really is the word: here you’ll find a trippy ceiling mosaic from artist Phyllida Barlow and, in the Mount St. Restaurant upstairs, actual Andy Warhol and Lucien Freud paintings on the wall. It’s pretty intoxicating to neck humble pints in such proximity to artistic greatness, though naturally the pub’s food and drinks offering is pretty swish too. With poshed-up favourites (think pies and fish and chips) in the kitchen and beers from Battersea’s Sambrook’s Brewery behind the bar, it’s a feast for the eyes and tastebuds. Order this The Audley’s Scotch egg, perfectly gooey and served in two halves, sunny side up, should be on permanent display at the Tate. Time Out tip The Mount St Restaurant boasts four private dining rooms, including The Scottish Room, a Highlands-inspired creation that features a striking cluster of antlers affixed to the ceiling. Great Scott! RECOMMENDED: The best restaurants in Mayfair.

Well, you can’t miss it, can you? The pub’s exterior – a bonanza of exploding foliage in pinks, purples, yellows, reds and everything in between – is a clue to the eccentricity at the heart of this fabulous old boozer. It’s a sort of living tribute to Winston Churchill, with a big bust of the former Prime Minister on the bar and a large photo of him in one of the bar rooms, as his grandparents were reportedly regulars. Along with the bric-a-brac (everything from baskets to brass bits and pieces) and Union Jack bunting that hangs from the ceiling, it’s catnip for tourists. Yet the Irish-owned pub, which dates back to 1750, is also beloved among locals whose roots in the area extend as far back as Churchill’s. That might be down to its top-tier Thai restaurant, which the owner reckons was London’s first. You might say it was their finest hour. In bloom The Churchill Arms is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a regular winner in its category in the London in Bloom competition, which encourages greenery in the capital. Get spicy This is a Fullers pub, so there’s naturally a cracking selection of ales – which is handy, as you’ll need something thirst-quenching to wash down that spicy stir-fry. RECOMMENDED: London’s best Thai restaurants.