Dan Stubbs

October 2026: Once a year we like to give this Top 50 a proper refresh, bringing a host of new pubs into the mix as well as a brand-spanking new Number 1. This year our list topper ends 12 months of south London domination from The Old Nun’s Head (which we still love), with Time Out’s Pub of the Year 2026 a north-of-the-river classic. A crowd pleaser that still feels like a hidden secret, Clerkenwell’s Shakespeare’s Head is truly one of a kind. Other new entries include Moylett’s in Clapton - which is the highest ranking new pub on the list - as well as The Dacre Arms in Lewisham, Paddington’s Royal Exchange and The Nag’s Head in Walthamstow. London’s best pubs at a glance:  🐎 Best pub in Soho: Coach & Horses 🪖 Best pub in Hackney: Army & Navy ⛪ Best pub in Peckham and Nunhead: The Old Nun’s Head 🍻 Best pub in Shoreditch: The Pride of Spitalfields 🎭 Best pub in Clerkenwell: The Shakespeares Head There’s nothing quite like a proper London pub. After many evenings (and a few afternoons) of important, pint-based research, we’ve done the impossible and ranked the 50 best pubs in London. Old-school boozers are the beating heart of this city, and the ones on this list are heavy with the powerful whiff of history – though that just might be the carpets – and full of joy, soul and community charm.  How did we decide what made the final 50? With a worrying amount of the UK’s pubs closing weekly, we wanted to highlight some of this city’s less well-known and independent inns. T

July 2026: If you’ve had the pleasure of strolling down Exmouth Market recently, you’ll know the historic Clerkenwell strip is the buzziest pedestrianised street in London, full of al-fresco fun, convivial pintspeople and sidewalk tapas as far as the eye can see. Which is pretty much all down to the new Number 1 in our list of the best bars in London. Congratulations are due to Cafe Kick, the breezy Euro-chic sports bar about to celebrate 30 years of tricking your brain into thinking you’re on holiday. The rest of our Top 50 features bars old and new, posh and divey, and cheap and pricey, but all of them with great drinks and an unparalleled vibe. Fancy a drink? You’ve come to the right place. This is Time Out’s list of best bars in London, our curated guide to London’s drinking scene, which features the greatest bars in the capital right now. These are the places we’d recommend to a friend, because we love drinking in them and have done many times over. From classy cocktail counters to delightful dives, sleek hotel bars, rooftop bars and places to sip wine, London’s got them all. You’ll find historic drinking holes here as well as brand new openings. But what makes a truly good bar? Our critieria is simple; a menu of great drinks is important, but so is the overall energy of the place – there’s no point having the perfect paloma if you have to drink it in a bar that smells of bin juice. To make it into our Top 50, a bar has to be fun, friendly, convivial and inclusive, as we

The first things you notice on entering corner pub The Royal Exchange are the vinyl turntables, mixer and amp, which occupy about 20 percent of the floor space. In a compact pub like this - two rooms; one showing live sport, a single bar along one wall - the effect is like parking a Range Rover in your kitchen. But music is the heart of this place. Should you wish, you can attend themed nights with DJs spinning Italo disco, reggae country, garage rock, goth, darkwave and industrial, Colombian cumbia, world music, space music, all of them with painfully cool flyers styled like old fanzines. Oh, and they have an anti-Glastonbury event called Glasnotbury.  A regular visitor to the pub and occasional Thursday night DJ is Paul Simonon, bassist with The Clash. His influence might explain the decor, which is revolutionary Cuba by way of west London. The Sandinista! album lives on in spirit here. From outside, where street drinking happens, the tableau feels like something from the past: the pub has its original gorgeous tiles and unfussy signage. Simonon clearly appreciates that too - he’s exhibited a painting of the pub’s exterior. On our early evening visit, the place was populated by sharply dressed older Jamaican men in wide-brimmed hats and overcoats, some after-work drinkers, a couple of punks and a chap who looked like Joe Strummer, complete with quiff and leather jacket, who had a lot to tell me about conspiracy theories and wore a 9/11 truther T-shirt.  That kind of behavio

Every week we hear about the closure of a much-loved pub. Often, they’re mothballed for years, until developers can turn them into flats. There they stand, on your street, the ghost of pubs past, begging you not to look. The Carlton Tavern in Maida Vale is quite the opposite, because it’s the Lazarus of London pubs. Not only was it closed down, it was levelled by wrecking ball. The pub was illegally demolished and, in one of those rare moves that make you want to kiss a councillor, the culprits were held to account and ordered to rebuild the whole thing, brick by brick, like a giant Lego set for drinkers. The pub reopened in 2021, exactly as it was when it poured its first pints 100 years previously. And it’s a beauty, one of those monolithic taverns with brown tiles and lettering describing interwar tastes for ales and spirits. There’s more of that down the side, promising a tea room that’s been converted into an inviting, vaulted dining space. In the beer garden is another reminder of its history: a reclaimed sign from when it was a Whitbread pub. But The Carlton isn’t stuck in the past - this place has diversified to the max. Should you want to, you could eat there, drink there and sleep there in the boutique hotel upstairs, accessed by a private courtyard. Talk of boutique hotels shouldn’t give you the wrong impression about the bar spaces, which are shabby and lived-in in just the right way. Rebuilding did not, apparently, mean the place is pristine and perfect. This sur

A recent post by a Pub-Tok influencer described The Dacre Arms as ‘a slice of the Cotswolds in Lewisham’, and, improbably, it's hard to disagree. Outside: a quiet street, trees, a church and a red telephone box full of books to take or replace. On the corner, the pub seems deceptively dinky and dainty. It has blooming hanging baskets and a set of tables down the side catching the late afternoon sun. Step through the door and, suddenly, you're in the 1950s, thanks to charming original features that survived even a 1970s refit. On tap, Cruzcampo is the exotic choice. You might get the bartender whose sardonic humour and childlike twinkle gives you the feeling of being served by a lost BBC sitcom character. The modern world has not changed The Dacre Arms. They do not do food. But they do do Scampi Fries. Get some. Drink secured, try and fully take in the tat-filled walls. Or see what competitive sport on the telly has the locals rapt, equally interested in daytime women’s curling as in the World Cup. Out back has the feel of your mum’s friend’s garden, all chunky furniture and declarations of when gin o’clock is.  There can’t be many of these pubs left So what’s so great about The Dacre Arms? Everything, really. It’s a pub that possesses the very spirit of the pub. It’s picture-book pretty but it’s a little rough-edged. Everyone seems to know everyone. There can’t be many of these left in London, or even Britain. So this is a neighbourhood pub of the rarest breed - unchanged, a

There’s a train outside The Fox & Firkin, an actual, proper, 1950s carriage. It serves as a seldom-used private hire space but primarily it’s just the backdrop to this Lewisham pub, club and venue’s vast outdoor space. Such is the scale of the place, that the train is barely noteworthy, tucked into a legendary beer garden and vast adult playground with festival-style canopies, benches and food trucks. There’s a stage, a photobooth, seating arrangements in what look like mausoleums, pool tables and a bar with lit-up signage reading BACKSTAGE. A soon-to-open new area, carved from the square footage of a closed-down ‘antiques’ shop, will add a cafe, taproom and street food hub.  The Fox’s free-spirited feel is embedded in its history. The second in the Firkin group, the slightly anarchic, student-friendly pub chain and brewery launched in 1979, the Fox & Firkin broke off as a rogue entity somewhere down the road. When the chain collapsed, the Fox survived - but only just. Much of the ethos remains - there’s a restored brewery in a warehouse beyond the garden, on the site where the beer for the whole Firkin chain was once brewed. The Fox’s free-spirited feel is embedded in its history The Fox & Firkin has surpassed its fallen brethren. Its musical programme - which takes place indoor, outdoor, late or all-day - is outstanding, a global offering of dub, rave, jazz, d’n’b, soul and highlife. Recent performers include Fabio & Grooverider, Mutya Buena and The Sugarhill Gang.  Not ju

There are two types of hostelries that open under the name of a long-forgotten business uncovered as-was on a beautiful, beaten-up shop sign during renovations. One crafts a vision based on the found history. The other thinks: ‘yeah, that'll do’. Endeavour is the latter.  Brilliant and weird Inside, it's a Manhattan/Barcelona-style bar - dark, long and unfussy, like two shipping containers arranged end to end. It has high tables at the back and window seats should you wish to gaze on four lanes of Deptford Broadway traffic. Better people watching is found inside. Is that The Cramps over there? Was that Neil Young wearing a wizard’s hat?  Simplicity is everything here. The bar is limited and unfussy - Staropramen at five quid a pint is the thing. There are three individual toilets, each plastered wall and ceiling with graffiti, and no toilet seats to be found. Downstairs from the main bar is a basement performance space, painted scarlet red and smelling mustier than a forgotten gym bag. I found a band playing grebo rock at tinnitus-inducing levels to half a dozen people on a weeknight. The same space is used for weekly comedy night Laugh Bath, which showcases up-and-coming comedians as well as new work by established comics. Other events include a psych night called Can You Dig It, which feels appropriate. Perhaps that name Endeavour isn't accidental after all, because this is a place that just keeps doing its thing - and its thing is brilliant and weird.  Order this A beer.

Every week, Deptford has a beloved (if chaotic) market in which the pavements are strewn with all manner of used goods, clothes, tat, records and - oddly - more wellies than you’ve ever seen, stacked like a rubber mountain. The diviest of dive bars At first glance, Big John’s Biltong Bar, on the High Street, looks like the place where the leftovers are swept. The diviest of dive bars, it appears to have collapsed into place or, perhaps, been excavated. The name of the bar is drawn onto the glass with a paint pen, the letters half-heartedly coloured in red.  But heart is what this place has in spades, whether it’s being among customers loudly singing along to a song you don’t recognise, the feeling of immediately being welcome or chatting to New Zealand native Big John himself, who might tell you about playing an Orc in the Lord Of The Rings movies if you’re lucky. The Kiwi’s concept for the bar - beer, cured meat, tat - can’t really be knocked, even if it is culturally confusing. As it was described to me - New Zealand man, Australian meat, South African biltong. Simple? Maybe. Delicious? Absolutely. The meat, served simply on paper trays at the bar, is the work of a real artisan.  Big John’s Biltong Bar is arguably the place that kickstarted the arty, grungy, independent revolution happening in Deptford right now. And in the long term, you can bet on it being the most resistant to change. Let’s hope so. Order this  All of the meats, cured and cooked. Speak to the gaffer abo