How To Pub Like You're At Home

As restrictions ease, we’re all spending more time outside… which is great! But, speaking from personal experience, it can also be exhausting. For months we have been dragging up our step count kicking and screaming by making more journeys between our bed and the fridge, so to be suddenly running from takeaway-coffee rendezvous to beer garden bookings (if you can get one…) for almost a month now, is taking its toll.

From the 17th May, indoor hospitality is due to reopen and we will all be able to retreat inside on those evenings where the weather is less than perfect, but we still want to hang out with our mates. Think crackling fireplaces and steaming roast potatoes, intimate interiors and countryside-throwbacks. There are pubs all over London offering the perfect night in, out. You can still kick back and relax, but this time with your mates in tow!

 

1. The Seven Stars, Holborn

This pub is really special. Dating from pre-1666 Great Fire of London, The Seven Stars may well be the oldest pub in London. Entering this place really is like being transported back to a place time forgot, with its low ceilings and mahogany-wood interior, tiny staircases and olde worlde décor. Be warned though, what makes this place so inviting is also what makes it so difficult to navigate… seating is limited (in pre-Covid times, you had to battle it out with lawyers and students), and you have to mind your head on the way to the loo!

Book here.

(Credit: @squaremeal)

 

2. The Ship, Wandsworth

With its spacious dining areas and multiple beer gardens, you will never feel cramped or claustrophobic at The Ship – I don’t know about you, but a great atmosphere always makes for a relaxed and cosy dining experience. The real reason we’re including The Ship on our list though, is because of the roast dinners. A south London legend, the Ship’s roast come with pints of homemade gravy, crispy duck-fat roasties, and Yorkshire puddings as big as your face! If that doesn’t remind you of home, then I don’t know what will. Complete your perfect Sunday with a stroll down the Thames path, to work off all those extra roastie-calories!

(Credit: @theship)

Find out more here.

 

3. The Holly Bush, Hampstead

A tried-and-tested favourite amongst locals, The Holly Bush is an eighteenth-century pub that has buckets of character. With a roaring open fireplace, armchairs that you just sink into, and walls lined with books just waiting to be read, this place will capture your imagination and your heart. The Holly Bush has a special ambience that is simply perfect for those nights where you just want to be curled up by a fireplace, drink in hand, catching up with your mates. We love the bare-wood beams as well. I don’t know what it is about bare-wood beams that immediately says “cosy night in the pub” but we’re hear for it.

(Credit: @thehollybush)

Take a peak here. 

 

4. The Albion, Islington

The Albion in Islington is the perfect place to go when you feel like a chilled one but don’t want to get a serious case of FOMO. A throwback to a time when Islington was all green fields and roaming cattle, The Albion boasts eighteenth-century Georgian interiors and a wisteria-lined façade. We love this place for its traditional British menu offering its diners cheeseboards, fish and chips, and that classic, sticky toffee pudding. It also had an extensive bar menu, offering everything from traditional Suffolk ciders to decidedly more metropolitan sounding cocktails.

(Credit: @thealbion)

Find out for yourself here. 

 

5. The Gun, Isle of Dogs

Don’t be fooled by the name – this place is a real softie. Right alongside the riverbank, The Gun in Isle of Dogs is a contradiction of sorts. Grade 2 listed; this pub combines its nautical roots with a splash of east London cool. Tucked away from the tourists in Brick Lane, The Gun offers armchairs that you just sink into, a secret gin garden to discover, and perfect riverside views that stretch all the way to the O2 – it really is the perfect combination of old and new! This place is the perfect spot to nurse a do some people-watching, some real-ale drinking, and maybe even some ship-watching too!

(Credit: @thegundocklands)

Check it out here!

So, there you have it - a comprehensive list of the most comforting pubs in all of London. These places prove that you can get all your traditional home comforts, without having to stay in. And we’ve all done enough of that over the past year…

 

Words by Rebecca Clayton