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. 

Sitting in the Cheshire Cheese and looking out the door. 

 

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. 

 

Exterior of the Devereux pub.

 

Inside the Devereux they had prints and a map of early London 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.  This 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.

 

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

 

We were ready to move on, and we met up with 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.  

 

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 snug 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, when 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 fancy 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 another 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 your 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 1--An Introduction

We haven't crossed the Atlantic since 2019, which marked our second visit to Vienna.  In 2018 we made our previous journey to London, my 16th.  Combined with our summer in Madrid/Barcelona and two weeks spent in Denmark, this marked my 20th crossing, and Deb's 17th.  Since then flights now cost much more, and leg room in economy has shrunk to alarming levels.  One now pays for luggage to be transported, to choose one's seat and to change a reservation, on top of the basic fare.  We chose a fare that allowed us one piece of luggage each and an opportunity to change flight times.  We did not pay to choose a seat.  All this extra money still gives you a seat with a very small personal space, far too close to the seat in front.  Deb and I are in the medium small size of human being--there must be others who suffer terribly or pay exorbitant fees for slightly more leg room.  We did take out cancellation insurance, a separate expense, on the flights and the hotel.

 

 Clapham Junction, a rail hub, with central London in the distance.

 

We stayed at the same hotel in Croydon that we like, now called the Leonardo.  It is the most convenient hotel anywhere in London with quick access to East Croydon Station, which connects to London Bridge via a direct and very frequent train service, and to London Victoria via Clapham Junction.  It also gives full access to the south of England.  There is a tram stop right outside the hotel with links to many other areas with connections, and the SL7 bus to and from Heathrow stops 6 minutes walk away.  The area near the hotel has a shopping mall, small restaurants, cafes and businesses, as well as five reliable pubs and one craft taproom.  In short, the area is perfect for us.  The hotel is very comfortable and features a bar/cafe and restaurant.  Our room, number 708, featured two beds, a view north, and a four minute walk to the main rail station.

 

Many things about London have changed.  It is more expensive than ever, both ales and food.  Transport is expensive but travelers get what they pay for.  The service is mostly on time, reliable and very frequent.  This includes buses, trams, overground and underground trains and National Rail services, all of which were used on this journey.  A sad change was the number of people who are permanently facially buried in their phones.  It is disconcerting to see a whole carriage of people on a subway or train or bus staring constantly and scrolling on their phones.  They do it while walking, eating during restaurant meals, while talking with others in their company, smoking (there is still far too much of this) and just about any other activity in which they engage.  Humanity continues to devolve, everyone transported to their own little world.  In addition, while there is an indoor smoking ban, smokers are allowed to stand right in front of open doors and puff away, their second hand smoke very noticeable from within.  This is clearly wrong.  Also, a lot of outdoor seating allows smoking, so we do not often sit outdoors.

 

The city is more crowded than I can remember.  It is a multicultural pot of stew, and some days we heard very little English spoken.  Ethnic restaurants abound and people of every conceivable colour, size and shape mix and mingle.  London now has 9.1 million people, with a metro area population of over 15 million.  At any given time there are likely an additional 1 million tourists clogging up the sidewalks and Zones 1 and 2 underground services.  This compares to Detroit's metro population of nearly 5 million, making London not only at least 3x more populous, but at least 10x denser, despite its many parks and green spaces.  And Detroit's tourism, while quite impressive, has a long way to go to catch up with almost any European city.

 

We actually spend very little time in central London any more, other than passing through it to the outer areas we have been exploring in our more recent trips.  We paid a visit to Camden Market, once a favourite area to browse funky shops, but now a hell hole for thousands of tourists to simply come and hang out.  We visited Stanford's, our favourite bookstore in the world, as it is dedicated to travel books and maps.  They have moved (to our surprise) but we managed to find the new store and cafe.  We did not visit any of the large museums.  Being free, they tend to attract enormous crowds, something we usually choose to avoid if possible.  And we spent a day pub crawling in the area of the Strand.  The rest of the time was spent in outer zones of London, far from the madding crowds, and twice we left the city completely to explore smaller cities.

 

We prefer to be as far from central London as possible.  This is a view from our first hike.
 

We flew from Windsor to Toronto on a turbo-prop plane.  Randy G. drove us to the airport and was there to pick us up two weeks later.  Thanks again, Randy, for saving us the hassles of parking and having to drive ourselves home after a very long day of return travel.  We chose a late night jumbo jet flight from Toronto, leaving at just after midnight.  Pearson International Terminal 1 was its usual overcrowded mess.  It is our least favourite terminal in the world, and offers a nearly mile long walk from our Windsor gate to our London gate.  The Air Canada flight to London only takes about 6 1/2 hours (8 1/2 for the return), and we arrived on time near noon hour at Heathrow.  The SL7 bus is itself another epic journey, and this time it was a bad one.  Sunday afternoon traffic was miserably dense, and on top of the 120 minute journey (usually around 90 minutes) we had to wait about 20 minutes for a bus.

 

We had followed our reliable jet lag program religiously, and it paid off.  We were asleep by ten that night and slept through till next morning.  We awoke ready to go.  Our first big hike awaited.

 

Brief Itinerary 

 

April 25th:  Flew to Toronto from Windsor.

April 26th:  Flew to London Heathrow from Toronto.  SL7 bus to Croydon.  Checked in to the Leonardo Hotel.

April 27th:  London Capital Ring segment 10 walk.

April 28th:  Rochester Cathedral and Castle.

April 29th:  London Loop Segment 10 Pt 1.

April 30th:  Fleet St. pub crawl.

May 1st:  London Loop Segment 10 Pt. 2.

May 2nd: Camden Market and The Albert, near Victoria Station.

May 3rd:  London Loop Segment 10 Pt 3--solo walk.  Local pubs.

May 4th:  Croydon day.  Rest and local shops and pubs.

May 5th:  Capital Ring Segment 11 Pt 1.

May 6th:  Lewes and Seaford day.

May 7th:  Capital Ring Segment 11 Pt. 2.  Stanford's books and Dovetail pub.

May 8th:  Bethlem Museum.  Local pubs.

May 9th:  Croydon to Amherstburg via Heathrow and Toronto.

 

to be cont'd....