Jimmy McIntosh

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 the East End: 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.

Shoreditch is a dining destination for tourists, hipsters and ravenous city workers alike, so it’s no wonder that there are restaurants of all cuisines and price ranges in this always-buzzy area. But which of the many options deserve your time and money? Let us tell you, with our list of the best restaurants in Shoreditch and Spitalfields, which only features places that we know will hit the spot. Check out everything from Michelin-starred favourites for big spenders to stellar plant-based joints and some of the best Italian restaurants in the capital. Go east and feast. January 2026: We've just given this list a proper revamp, removing those Shoreditch spots that are no longer up to scratch and adding a load of new must-visit restaurants in their place. There's also a brand new number one - Plates, which is the UK’s only Michelin-starred vegan restaurant. Other new entries include Legado, from Michelin star Spanish chef Nieves Barragán Mohacho, Cycene (another Michelin-star scorer), sleek Ukranian restaurant Tatar Bunar, Japanese-Italian fusion spot Osteria Angelina, bottomless lasagna paradise Senza Fondo, Singburi 2:0 and spruced up gastropub The Macbeth. Plenty of local classics remain, from Brat and Smokestak to Smoking Goat, Rochelle Canteen, Manteca and The Clove Club.  RECOMMENDED: The best bars, pubs and rooftops in Shoreditch. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

St Pancras Old Church is allegedly the oldest site of continuous Christian worship in England, but today pilgrims of all faiths flock to its churchyard and the lush grounds that surround it. A tranquil oasis sandwiched between the modernity of the railway and the A5202, the gardens can claim a number of famous historical residents, including the French revolutionary spy Chevalier d’Eon and the composer Johann Christian Bach, plus the mausoleum of John Sloane and the grave of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin.

The ‘interwar public house’ is one of the best genres of boozer, and the King Charles I – located on a backstreet where the Old London of Caledonian Road meets the contemporary bustle of King’s Cross proper – is one of the capital’s finest examples. Walk into its cosy, wood-panelled interior on a winter’s night and you’ll find a welcoming, warm pub filled with knick-knacks, a rotating cast of ales and stouts, and regular, raucous live music nights. The boozer was saved from closure in 2015 by a group of regulars, and in 2021 was listed as an Asset of Community Value, ensuring its status as a vital King’s Cross cog for years to come.

The area sandwiched between King’s Cross and Euston, Somers Town, has a rich history: the site of multiple social housing experiments, and once home to literary luminaries including Charles Dickens, Mary Shelley, and William Wordsworth, today it possesses a fiercely tight-knit central London community – but it’s also an area where rapid change and the trappings of modernity are creeping up from all sides.

The last time I found myself in Hoxton’s The Macbeth, it was 2009, I was wearing drainpipe jeans, and I was going to see a friend’s terrible, terrible band at the tail end of the indie glory years. Sixteen years later and I’m back, splitting a bifana in roughly the same spot where I once suffered through an onslaught of angular guitars and yelped vocals. The Macbeth has a storied history. Built by the Hoxton Distillery as the White Hart in the 1800s, it got its Shakespearian moniker in the mid-noughties (presumably as a result of the ceramic mural inside depicting the Bard’s Caledonian classic). It became an important site of pilgrimage for indie kids across the capital – hosting such musical titans as Franz Ferdinand, Florence + the Machine, and, er, Iglu & Hartley.  By its end the venue had been smartened up in a manner unbefitting a divey music spot, and so it wasn’t much of a surprise when, in July of this year, the premises was taken over by Jamie Allan – the chef who co-transformed The Auld Triangle in Finsbury Park from Hibernian hoochhole into the much-feted Plimsoll – and became a gastropub serving up Portuguese-inspired small plates.  It is, our server assures us, still very much a boozer (and if you wish you can sit in at the front of the pub and sink six pints of £4.95 Macbeth Lager without eating), but the food is the star of the show here. We order eight plates, and first to arrive are the viva-grande tomatoes, which were arguably the best thing we ate all eveni

Buzzy and vibrant, the Lower Stable Street Market is located in the Copenhagenesque expanse of Coal Drops Yard, the redeveloped Victorian railway depot. Each weekend Lower Stable Street plays host to a revolving cast of independent retailers and eateries; zine fairs and art stalls. A certified B Corp, the market acts as an important community hub, and proudly nurtures local talent – whether that’s through workshops, panel talks, or exhibitions. There are few finer ways to spend a Saturday than a stroll through the market’s passages.

There were once seven branches of the Irish bar Angie’s in London. Today there are just three – in Harlesden, Willesden Green, and here, in Maida Hill. It’s the pick of the bunch: a backstreet boozer that pours what many aficionados consider the best Guinness in London. Plus, at under a fiver for a pint, you can spend an entire afternoon here deep in refreshment and not feel like you'll have to eat beans for the rest of the month.