London 2026: Part 5--Fleet Street Pub Crawl

This is part 5 of a series. 

 

Eight pubs--count them.  We didn't even do all the ones available in this very small area of about two city blocks.  We skipped The Olde Cheshire Cheese as it was too busy at lunch hour and we had been there years before.  And the final pub on our list was way overcrowded after 5 pm, so we gave it a miss, too.We began early, arriving about 11 am in the area and settling in to the first pub.  It was one of the finest of the bunch.  We began our adventure outside Temple tube station, using an older pub crawl book that divides London into 15 pub walks.  We walked #4, Fleet Street: Between City and Palace.

 

A beautiful old underground sign. 

 

Our first pub was The Cheshire Cheese, 4 Little Essex Street.  This is a quiet backstreet pub, away from the madness of Fleet Street.  It is intimate, filled with dark wood and it offered an amazing selection of vegan food options.  It opened at 11 am and we were there by 11:05.  We were the only customers and it was like having our own private pub.  It is a Shepherd Neame pub, thus I wasn't too interested in the ales.  We split a half of Whitstable Bay Pale Ale, not very memorable.  But we both loved the pub and we lingered here until around 11:30. 

 

The Cheshire Cheese is a classic old fashioned pub, and we both loved it here. 

 

The Devereux at 20 Devereux Court is another fine pub, this one with a very long history.   In the 1600s there was a coffee house here.  By 1700 London had 480 of them!  Men found they could work here all day and not be tempted by alcohol.  Plus they likely stayed awake.  The coffee house here was called The Grecian and was a favourite of Sir Isaac Newton.  It was pulled down in the 1800s when coffee houses went out of fashion, and a pub was installed in the ground floor of the building.  We split a half of London Pride here.  So after two pubs we had only drank a half pint each.  We could easily make it through this day.

 

Sitting in the Devereux and looking out the door.

 

Exterior of the Devereux pub.

 

Inside the Devereux they had prints and a map of early coffee houses and what went on in them. 

 

Our third pub was The Edgar Wallace.  All three pubs are within seconds of one another, so we hadn't actually "walked" very much on this pub walk so far.  The pub proved to be a disappointment.  Instead of Wallace material on the walls they had plastered them with cheap ads from old magazines. The ceiling was covered in pump clips of ales this place had never served.  It didn't work.  The pub is old and soaked in dark wood, and the brightly colourful and very distracting ads detracted from the atmosphere.  They did have a lot of Wallace paperback novels on a shelf and it was fun to look through them.  The upstairs room is where the Wallace society used to hold their meetings; whether or not they still do is beyond my ken.  More Wallace books can be found upstairs.  The pub was renamed in 1975 from The Essex Head, marking the centenary of Wallace's birth.  Samuel Johnson once lived here, and this is where he formed Sam's Club, a group of men that would meet for ale and discussion.  The pub featured the most expensive pint of ale that we had in London, at L8 (over $15 Can.)  We shared a half of St. Austell Tribute, which wasn't kept very well.

 

We were ready to move on, and we met our London best friend Caroline outside the pub.  Near where The Strand meets Fleet St. the Twinings tea store can be found.  We spent some time browsing and tasting in this long but very narrow store and I came away with a box of different teas for my mother and a box for myself.  Almost next door is The George, a beautiful pub that offered some serious ale choices.  At last we had hit a pub that took its ale selection seriously!  We spent considerable time here chatting and getting caught up on each other's news.  Deb and I shared halves of Southark Brewery's Regal Red and Portobello Brewery's Crown Jewels Porter.  We ordered some snacks as well, as the menu was very vegan friendly. 

 

The now virtually ruined Edgar Wallace pub, an overpriced place to avoid.  It did have a small choice of ales. 

 

A perfectly lovely choice of 7 ales and 2 ciders awaited at The George, one of our favourite pubs from today's walk. 

 

The law courts dominate the area, and as we walked towards our next pub we took in some of the architecture.  Bewigged lawyers were sauntering from the court to other places (pubs?).  It was lunch hour and the streets and pubs were busy.  

 

Part of the Inns of Court.

 

A fun place to visit for tea drinkers.

 

Near our next pub Thomas More was celebrated. 

 

We had visited The Seven Stars many many years ago, on one of our first trips to London.  At the time it was London's smallest pub.  Though it has expanded by about 25%, it's still one of the smallest pubs we have ever visited.  Most drinkers stand outside with their pints, but we found a tiny table with three chairs scrunched into the "new" wing of the pub, once an old wig shop.  Deb and I split a half of Adnams, which was quite perfect.

 

The Seven stars, a very special pub because of its size.  The curtained window on the left used to be a tiny wig shop (for lawyers and such), now converted into a second tiny seating area for pub drinkers.

 

Fun architecture along the pub walk abounds. 

 

Next came a newer pub, one not listed in our walking guide.  I had spotted this one on a search of the area on Google Maps before leaving home, checking on updated hours for our pubs today.  So we added The Old Bank of England, at the corner of Bell Yard and Fleet St.  It is a repurposed bank, and I couldn't think of a better use for one.  The interior is splendid.  Deb and I shared a half of McMullen Ale called Old Bank of England, made especially for the pub by the brewery.  It was much appreciated, and we had some more nibbles here, too.  We might have had coffee here, too; my mind is a bit muddled on some features of this fine day.

 

The Old Bank of England is now a very fine and modern pub.

 

The pub looks out onto Fleet St.

 

The Fleet is a (now) underground river that flows into the Thames, and the famous street is named after it.  Not sure who the dandy is. 

 

Next came the Old Cock Tavern, where we lucked into some fine ciders.  We had run across Lilley's Cider at a few places, and it was time to imbibe.  We had their Apple/Perry, a favourite combo of mine, and it was fantastic!  Then came Elderflower Cider--we had hit the cider jackpot!  This became a very memorable stop.

 

Pump clips on the wall, likely at the Old Cock Tavern judging by all of the Lilley's ciders represented.

 

The walk passes the one time house of Samuel Johnson.

 

A Beautiful art nouveau clock somewhere along Fleet St.  It was now after work hours and places were getting very crowded very quickly.

 

Our final stop was The Old Bell.  We had planned one more pub afterwards, the Punch Tavern, but by the time we arrived it was so crowded that it was nearly impossible to pass by on the sidewalk, never mind get into the pub, get up to the bar and order drinks.  I have a sneaking suspicion that due to the type of (over) crowd on site that this was a pub heavily recommended by influencers, those people who seem to know everything about everywhere and love to tell everyone about it.   If standing outside with a hundred other people is you idea of a great time at a classic pub, then enjoy your visit.  The Old Bell was busy but sane and we had no trouble finding a table.  They had two favourites on handpull: Dark Star Brewery's Hophead, and Rosie's Original Cloudy cider.  Double yum! 

 

Deb hovers in front, possibly with Caroline just out of the picture, blocked by a passing pedestrian.  This was to be the final pub of the epic day of fine pubs.

 

More cider! 

 

In bed later that night I came down with a scratchy throat.  At first I thought it was from all the ciders, but it soon became apparent that I was coming down with a virus.  It turned into a five day cold, nothing too serious but it did curtail activities for a few days, especially the walking and even the drinking.  Deb managed to avoid getting sick.  I had built in several rest and recoup days into the schedule.  I had expected some rain to cancel a few outings, but it never rained in the two weeks we were there.  The next day, a Friday, would feature more hiking, likely propelling the cold virus forward.  But that is the story of the next blog entry.  See you there.

 

to be continued...

 
 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

London 2026: Part 4: London Loop Part 10

This is part 4 of a series.

This walk is along the second long distance trail within the boundaries of London, sticking to the far outer areas within Zone 6.  It is 150 miles long, thus the segments are longer then those of the Capital Ring.  This walk was 11 1/2 miles but we spread it over three days.  The first day we walked 7 miles, the second was 3.1 miles.  Deb was not feeling up to the walk for Part 3 so I walked the final part solo, 4 1/2 miles.  The walk begins at Moor Park Station and ends at Elstree and Borehamwood Station.  Newer versions of the Loop guides shorten some of the segments, but we use an older book and keep to the original 15 long segments.

 

The day began with a comedy of errors.  We messed up two of our trains so we ended up starting the walk about 75 minutes later than we should have.  At East Croydon we jumped on a train as the doors were closing.  I thought we had gone down the ramp to Platform 1, so any train we jumped on would have been fine.  Alas, we had tramped down Platform 3 by mistake, so the train we jumped on was going in the opposite direction.  We got on just as the doors closed.  We sat down and heard over the speaker that we were merrily on our way to Gatwick Airport.  It's only a 17 minute ride, but we had no ticket for this mistaken journey.  We got off at Gatwick, crossed the platform and caught the train back to East Croydon and beyond, again with no ticket.  Once back at East Croydon we were fine.  Luckily no conductor asked for a ticket.  So we lost about 35 minutes there.

 

Later in the morning we had to take the Metropolitan Line from Harrow on the Hill Station.  We did, even going in the right direction.  However, the train tracks split one station later, each ending at different destinations.  Our bad luck held and we got on the wrong train.  Noticing the mistake about three stations later, we got off, crossed the platform and headed back to Harrow on the Hill.  We waited for the correct train, finally arriving at Moor Park Station.  We had spent the entire morning on trains, instead of half a morning.

 

In the old Loop guidebook this is the first part of Section 10.  This sign was outside Moor Park Station. As it turned out this is how much we walked today, ending at Hatch End. 

 

Our walk today through outer London. 

 

The walk began on a golf course and we had to cross open fairways to reach the woods.  Oxley Woods is yet another major deep suburban park that goes on and on.  The walk was about as far from rural as one can find within the boundary of London and we enjoyed it immensely.  Here are a few photos of our walk.

 

It was still very windy and warm, so being in the forest away from the wind and sun felt good.

 

London Loop through Oxley Woods.

 

Redhead and bluebells.

 

We saw many amazing trees today, including one or two Ents. 

 

 

Early 18th C. Pinnerwood House and its pond. 

A Victorian farmhouse at Pinnerwood Farm.

 

A view back towards Harrow on the Hill.

 

Ah yes.  Grazing horses in a field.  In London.

 

O'er hill and dale, and across a field or two.

 

We were usually alone on much of this walk. 

 

Hatch End Station was a welcome sight at the end of today's walk, part 1 of 3.  But before that came The Moon and Sixpence Pub, close by the station. 

 

After the walk we were pretty tired, having had four rather strenuous days in a row. A Wetherspoons pub near Hatch End Station revived us for the journey home.  We enjoyed Hobgoblin Gold from Wychwood Brewing (on cask, of course), an above average ale, and a very fine glass of Plum Porter from Titanic.  We also discovered Maude Valerie White, a Victorian female songwriter; Barry Cryer, a comedian and comic writer (remind to tell you one of his jokes next time we meet); and Sir Ambrose Heal, who started a successful arts and crafts furniture company.  The pub celebrated all three who were local to the area at one time.

 

We had to transfer trains at Clapham Junction, but we stayed in the area and visited two other pubs (at 5 pm!), just outside one of the busiest train stations in England.  The Falcon was an old fashioned beauty, while The London and Southwestern was a Wethies.  The Harvey's Best Bitter at the Falcon was top knotch, while the other pub featured an ale from Oakham, one of our favourite breweries.

 

 Near Clapham Junction Station at 5 pm.

 

View of a beautiful old building across from the Wethies pub.

 

The London Southwestern had 10 ales on handpull. 

 

The next day was a serious pub crawl in Fleet Street, but I will deal with that in the next blog entry.  Part 2 of this Loop segment was two days later.  We began at Hatch End Station and walked just over 3 miles to Stanmore Street, where we caught the 142 bus to Stanmore Station from Priory Hill stop.  This was the hottest day, near 80 F so we called an early halt.  There were no cafes or pubs at the tube station, so we boarded a train and Deb did her phone search for upcoming stations.  We got off at Kingsbury Station and walked the short distance to J J Moon, another Wethies pub.  We shared three half pints that included Red Kite by Vale Brewery (not too shabby), Chestnut Bitter, delicious, and Black Beauty Porter, also by Vale.  Yum!  Closer to home and just outside East Croydon Station we stopped at the Porter and Sorter for Wainright Gold, downright drinkable after a long day and a long ride on a series of trains.

 

Our second segment of Loop 10 crossed a lot of fields, thru woods and around another golf course.  Because of the heat we finished early today, catching a bus at a road we had to cross and heading towards home, but slowly.  After all, there were unvisited pubs between us and home.

 

 

Another distant relative of an Ent.

 

Shrubs and trees everywhere were exploding in colourful flowers. 

 

See above.

 

Ent toes.

 

One of many parks crossed by Loop Segment 10.
 

Look how far we are from central London!  We are gradually making a giant circle around the city, but staying within the boundaries of London itself. 

  

Two days later I finished the walk by myself.  Deb had started out with me but at London Bridge Station decided she was not up to a long walk today.  It was the only day she was unable to keep pace with me, likely needing a rest day.  I resumed the walk where we had left off, at Priory Hill bus stop, crossing field and stream before stopping for lunch at Bhageecha Restaturant.  Once a pub, the place has been given a very expensive makeover and now serves Indian food.  There were a lot of vegan options and I chose a yellow dahl that was quite divine.  A highly recommended stop over for Loop walkers, as the trail passes its front door.

 

My solo walk from Priory Hill to Elstree and Borehamwood Station.  It was 4 1/2 miles. 

 

Horses are very popular in outer London. 

 

I crossed a field filled with buttercups.

 

After lunch I visited Aldenham Reservoir and Dam. 

The village of Elstree is now part of Greater London, but it still looks and feels like a village.

 

A dead tree covered in flowering vines. 

 

The finest tree of my walk today, and one of the finest I have ever seen.

 

How rural can a big city get? 

  

Nearing the end of my walk, approaching Elstree and Borehamwood Station.  I made a brief stop at the Weelington Pub nearby, drinking half a pint of Old Speckled Hen, the only ale on handpull here.  Oh well, can't win them all. 

 

I was back at the hotel in time for coffee, so I picked up Deb and we went to the George.  We had coffee and shared a half of Orkney Brewery's delicious and recommended ale called Red McGregor Ruby Red.  We followed this up with a visit to our favourite pub in the world, The Green Dragon.  We enjoyed a perfect glass of Mad Squirrel's London Porter, following that up with a draft ale, the unbelievably delicious Viennese Swirl, also from Mad Squirrel, a chocolate vanilla porter that weighed in at 8 % (very heavy for London).  We heard that the pub would be closing for a change in management and a spring cleaning.  We are quite worried, frankly.  We hope it will still be there when we return.

 

On the way home Deb spotted Art and Craft, a tap house for microbrews.  They have an original Banks on the wall, in addition to some fine brews.  Today we had London Black Nitro Porter and Anspach and Hobday, and it was very special indeed!  We finished the day's rounds with New Bristol's Bristol Cider, which was truly delicious.  What an area to have for one's hotel location! 

 

The Green Dragon, Croydon. 

 

Green Dragon beverages.

 

Tap list at Art and Craft, Croydon, just a few yards from the Green Dragon.

 

to be continued...