London's Oldest Pubs: Sipping History

By Megan Hills

The great British tradition of sipping a pint in an old, old pub is one every tourist should try. And there's no better place to commune with one's pint than in London's oldest pubs. Pubs are deeply intertwined with British culture. For centuries, they've been popular places for social gatherings and central to neighbourhood life. So it's no surprise then that some pubs are among the oldest buildings in the city. They are still points in fast-moving London endless spin. From famous literary hangouts to more notorious gathering places, here's a list of London's oldest pubs. Featuring:

  • The George Inn
  • Spaniards Inn
  • The Angel

Image via George Inn facebook

The George Inn

This old stalwart has been a favourite watering hole for some of London's most famous faces for centuries. Charles Dickens used to relax here after a day of writing. It's no surprise then that it's popular with literary sorts. Rebuilt after the Fire of London in 1676, it continues to be a local favourite and has plenty of outdoor seating for those long summer nights. Address: The George Inn, London Bridge, SE1 1NH

Image via The Lamb and Flag facebook

The Lamb and Flag

Set up in 1772 and located in the heart of Covent Garden, The Lamb and Flag is one of the newer pubs on this list. But it has an equally as fascinating history. Back in the day, this pub was well known for its rowdy customers and was the site of many bare-knuckled prize fights. It has cleaned up its act in recent years and its historical detailing makes it a popular place with tourists. It used to be nicknamed 'The Bucket of Blood'. Whisper that fact in someone's ear and - hey presto! - a free seat. Address: 33 Rose St, London WC2E 9EB

Image via Flickr

Cittie of Yorke

This Grade II-listed historical building has been a favourite with locals and travelers since 1420. It was initially an inn, but transformed into a pub in 1645. With multiple bars and grand decor, it's an atmospheric spot for drinks on High Holborn. It's also a Sam Smiths pub. And if you know what that means, you know to keep it to yourself (it's cheap. Sorry, Secret Society of Central Sam Smiths Pubs members, it's my job). Address: 22 High Holborn, London WC1V 6BN

Image via Ye Old Mitre

Ye Old Mitre

Tales tell that Queen Elizabeth I once danced around this pub's cherry tree, which survives at its entrance to this day. While it can be a little tricky to find, it's a great example of a traditional English pub and dates back to 1772, though another pub had stood on the same location from 1546. Perfect for a quiet drink in the colder months, their coal fires and impressive Tudor details will keep you warm as you slip into a deep reverie. Address: 1 Ely Pl, London EC1N 6SJ

Image via Flickr

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

This sprawling Fleet Street pub features frequently in London tourist guides. And it's with good reason. Built in 1538 and then later rebuilt in 1667 following the Fire of London, it's one of London's oldest pubs. It has a number of rooms with distinctive characters, from the Victorian entranceway to the cellar room that's thought to have been part of a monastery which once stood here. Another Dickens favourite, other former patrons include Mark Twain, Alfred Tennyson and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Address: 145 Fleet St, London EC4A 2BU

Image via Spaniards Inn

Spaniards Inn

Shrouded in mystery and intrigue, some of London's most important literary figures have passed through the Spaniards Inn's front door, along with a number of notorious characters. Established in 1585, it has been both a place of great beauty and great darkness - John Keats is said to have written his poem Ode to a Nightingale here, while famous highwayman Dick Turpin seen drinking at the bar. Nowadays, they do a lovely Sunday lunch. Address: Spaniards Rd, Hampstead, London NW3 7JJ

Image via Knowledge of London Pubs

The Angel

First built by 15th century Benedictine monks, this historical pub had a face lift in the 19th century and has a diverse mix of patrons ranging from locals to Thames pub journeymen and journeywomen. Its picturesque Thames setting and Sam Smiths Brewery add to its charms. Oh, and it's got some very pleasing British pub grub too. Address: 101 Bermondsey Wall E, London SE16 4NB Know of another golden oldie to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below. Now you've done the historical ones, how about a pint outside?

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Baby Reindeer and Edinburgh Shows in London

We went to see Richard Gadd’s Baby Reindeer at Bush Theatre, Shepherd’s Bush. As well as telling you about it, we wanted to recommend a few more shows from the Edinburgh Fringe that are soon on in London. Edinburgh shows in London like... Josie Long’s long-awaited comeback, Tender Then there's John Robins’s follow up to the award-winning The Darkness of Robins Also, Burgerz by Travis Alabanza And finally, Collapsible by Margaret Perry Baby Reindeer It’s weird stepping back into sunlight (I saw the Wednesday matinee) after watching something like Baby Reindeer, Richard Gadd’s latest confessional storytelling piece. I felt like I’d been mugged. A decent chunk of the audience also looked bereft of something they’d walked in with. Richard Gadd deserves the contents of your wallet too. At least the price of a ticket to Baby Reindeer, on at Bush Theatre until November 9th. You’re given warnings as to the content as you walk in. Do heed them. Richard Gadd—winner of the Edinburgh Comedy Award (formerly the Perrier), but not a comedian here—has had a stalker for years. Not a tiptoeing weirdo who stops when you turn to confront them. Not a fan who went a bit too far online. A cruel, deluded, relentless, calculating, obsessed and damaged stalker who wants Gadd all for herself. If if she can’t have him, she wants him destroyed. Baby Reindeer was her nickname for him and the show is their story. It’s technically a one-man show, but she—‘Martha’—is centre stage, an empty bar stool that turns to face Gadd as he attempts to escape her, work around her, confront her head on. Her thousands of voicemail messages to him are recreated, spitting distorted through the speakers. Her endless obsessive, caring, hateful, disgusting emails batter the screens that surround Gadd in the round. The story of a stalking There were no warnings about gut punches, toe curls or knife twists as you walked in. The thousands of bilious calls and abusive messages hurled at Gadd disorientate as they pummel the audience, flashing up on screens, screaming through the PA as the lights go red. These are the gut punches. They bring the kind of hellish feeling forced on you by that bit in Dear Zachary when the bottom falls out of the world you’ve been led to believe is pulling itself together. The toe curls come from the actions of Gadd’s friends and Gadd himself. He meets the nascent obsession with pity, shrugs, with flirting, with mean jokes and inappropriate comments directed at the sad woman who comes to the bar he works at every day. The woman he gave a cup of tea to, on the house. The early gestures and actions and remarks of Gadd and his Greek chorus of laddy mates and colleagues don’t make them look good. They are brief and, given the actions of the opposition, understandable. Yet their inclusion is brave. Baby Reindeer is complicated by them, its honesty is balanced, its devastating tone made responsible because of them. Now for the knife twists, the final act in the mugging. Richard Gadd approaches the police for assistance. He looks upwards, the meetings staged as though he’s a little kid asking an omnipotent authority figure in the heavens for help. Has she made direct threats against you? If she’s contacting your loved ones, she isn’t harassing you now is she? Do you fear for your life? Are you scared of her? The knife twists with each question, each conclusion that, to the letter, she hasn’t done anything against the law. The operational impotence of the police frustrates and focuses like a migraine. The end Any slight opening of light or space for air that comes from on high is quickly, painfully shut down Gadd’s stalker shows herself impervious to intimidation, resistant to reason, reinvigorated by rejection. Time and time again she outdoes herself, her cruelty deepens, her intentions darken. Her last action, her last appearance still hurts and still shocks, despite all that she's done before. Throughout, Gadd submits to waves of confusion, distrust and resignation. He sparks into anger, clarity and decisiveness. He’s a physically energetic performer—he performed his last show, Monkey See, Monkey Do running on a treadmill—but his swings between contrasting emotional responses to his harassment are the most exhausting thing about Baby Reindeer. You need stamina even as an audience member. It’s not a marathon by any means. The 70-minute, no interval performance seems to take no time at all. It’s more like doing a hundred metre sprint. With no sleep. And a 40 degree fever. And someone’s switched your Lucozade for Jack Daniel’s. You come round 70 minutes later, wondering where the hell you are, what the hell happened and where the hell all your stuff is. So go see Richard Gadd’s Baby Reindeer. With a friend, if possible. It’s on at Bush Theatre in Shepherd’s Bush until November 9th 2019. For tickets, head here. Josie Long, Tender We saw Josie Long at Live at the Empire at Hackney Empire earlier this year following her Edinburgh run. There, her short set on a mixed bill with Stewart Lee, Rose Matafeo, Rosie Jones and others really stood out, her confident, singular voice cutting through, even on a bill like that, even as the world spins out of control around her. Just as relatable and conversational as ever, she seemed refreshed after her first new Edinburgh show in five years, which was met with universal praise. Her material on motherhood was profound and distinctive, heartfelt and perfectly pitched. She had a great bit about periods and the JFK assassination too. She’s being doing this since she was 17, but she’s never seemed quite as brilliantly, contagiously hilarious as this before. So we can’t wait to see her at the Soho Theatre in November. You shouldn't need any more reasons to join us, but here's our review of Live at the Empire all the same. Tender is on at the Soho Theatre from November 11th - November 20th 2019. For tickets, head here. [caption id="attachment_5492" align="alignnone" width="1000"] josielong.com[/caption] John Robins, Hot Shame It was never likely that John Robins’s 2018 Edinburgh Comedy Award win would change him. The self-criticism that made his last, award-winning live show The Darkness of Robins so compelling wasn’t going on the pyre along with the slain Edinburgh albatross. After all, he has a radio feature called John’s Shame Well and he is the mayor of said well. But his new show Hot Shame—while just as personal and revealing and charted by his own missteps as the last—is more forgiving. And his tale of a night spent with a woman in New York is one of the most sensitive, reassuring and excruciating tales ever told of a night spent trying to be both a good person and a sexual being. Hot Shame is on at the London Finchley Arts Depot on 16th November. He’s touring across the country until the end of November 2019. For tickets, head here. [caption id="attachment_5491" align="alignnone" width="1000"] artsdepot.co.uk[/caption] Burgerz Travis Alabanza has turned a violent act committed against them, and violent, transphobic words thrown their way, into an important, vital, protesting piece of art. The show is playful in its form and, through Travis’s assured and singular voice, it’s witty and smart and sensitive. But Burgerz is cutting too. Its technicolour boldness and uniqueness can’t mask the fact that hateful acts like the one that inspired Burgerz are desperately bleak and depressingly common. A standout Edinburgh show in London for a limited run. So book now. Burgerz is on at the Southbank Centre from 29th November - 1st December 2019. For tickets, head here. [caption id="attachment_5490" align="alignnone" width="1000"] southbankcentre.co.uk[/caption] Collapsible One of the most original Edinburgh shows in London early next year, this one woman monologue is captivating from first to last and superbly, simply staged. We’re watching Essie, broken up with her girlfriend and now jobless, right on the edge of falling down, of breakdown. She’s angry, furious with the world. She’s done, her heart broken by it all. We see tender moments and we see her fury as her world collapses and she collapses with it. Collapsible is on at Bush Theatre from 5th February - 14th March 2020. For tickets, head here. [caption id="attachment_5493" align="alignnone" width="1000"] bushtheatre.co.uk[/caption] So, those are our tips for Edinburgh Shows in London right now, a little later or early next year. Of course, there are plenty more brilliant Edinburgh shows in London, opening, closing and popping up over the next few months. So do please let us know about your top tips in the comments below. But, if you're generally into London theatrical events and venues, have a look over here. But, you know, you might be more into sushi. So, if that's the case, have a look here.
Matthew Pearson
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Video Games Set In London

In the run-up to EGX, London’s premier gaming expo, we’re shining a light on some of the wide and wonderful gaming experiences in, around, or about London. Ah, London. We come for your iconic landmarks, exciting multiculturalism, and amazing nightlife. We stay despite your preposterous rent, mouse invaders, and suspiciously absent red phone boxes. However, for some housed far over the other side of the world, London is out of reach... for now. To celebrate EGX, we've put together a list of video games set in London. What better way to experience it in all its glory than in the fantasy of a simulation? Now shut your curtains, because we wouldn’t want screen glare spoiling the fun. Resistance: Fall of Man The Order: 1886 Another of the many video games set in London is beautiful, if a little short on content. It’s called The Order: 1886, and it sees you play as Galahad. Yes, that Galahad from the King Arthur legend. In this universe, the Knights of the Round table are real, and have been alive for centuries thanks to some weird dirty water they drink. They also fight poor, innocent werewolves. You’ll scale an airship over Westminster, blow up explosive barrels in Victorian streets, and take on the city's inhabitants. Sadly, it's over just as it gets going, with no sequel in sight. But hey, if you want an altogether more leisurely jaunt along the Thames, why not try a Thames River Cruise? Number of innocent werewolves murdered: several Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 Nightmare Creatures What sort of list would be complete without an obscure reference to a 20-year-old video game set in London? A terrible one. But this list is brilliant. Introducing Nightmare Creatures, a historically accurate retelling of London’s dark past, the game opens with Samuel Pepys causing the Great Fire of London by burning a lab full of monstrous human experiments. We didn’t know this either, but after digging through a few history books we actually discovered it to be definitely true. Then in 1834, occult expert Ignatius Blackwood (really) receives Pepys’ diary, and decides to take his daughter to London to take on said monstrous human experiments. Terrible parenting. The game itself involves a lot of swinging weapons wildly in the direction of blocky enemy monsters. There's some fog too. Very authentic. Number of terrible parents in this game: one The Getaway On the coat-tails of GTA’s revolution from 2D to 3D comes London’s very own third-person extravaganza. The Getaway is what would happen if a Guy Ritchie movie had a fight with another Guy Ritchie movie. Expect to drive around central London, completing missions as both a vengeful criminal and a disgraced policeman. There are definitely better ways of seeing the sights yourself. We recommend you instead try a hop-on, hop-off bus tour. Number of times cockney rhyming slang used: too many to count Watchdogs: Legion Set to release next Spring, the next installment of the GTA-esque hacker game takes place in a near-future, dystopian London. The government has all but abandoned the capital, and you must rise up and reclaim the city from the private militaries and crime syndicates that have taken over. As the game takes place in one of the most surveillance-heavy cities on the planet, expect countless opportunities to hack phones, drones, and mobile homes. The nifty new feature being touted for this installment is to effectively recruit and control any and every citizen you find wandering around. Yes, even retired spy grannies. Number of average Joe's hired to your cause: all of them Those are some video games set in London. But if you want to see the sights IRL, point and click here.
Dom Bewley
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Kew Gardens: Plant and Flower Facts

To celebrate the fact that you can get into Kew Gardens for absolutely diddly squat with The London Pass, we thought we’d arm you with some fantastic plant and flower facts. The kind of facts to impress anyone who happens to be joining you on your visit. Or a stranger. Or the trees themselves. Including... Which plant gives off a flammable vapour that smells like lemons? How many plants are edible for humans? How tall is the tallest tree in the world? Now that we've got your attention, here are the facts... Plant and Flower Facts Bamboo takes the title as the Fastest Growing Woody Plant on the Planet. It can grow by as much as 90cm a day. At 2,200,000 Scoville Heat Units (the measurement for spiciness), the world’s hottest chilli pepper, the Carolina Reaper, is 200x hotter than a Jalapeño. A cross between a Ghost Pepper and a Red Habanero, the Carolina Reaper has been bred for heat, although it also has a certain fruitiness to it too...allegedly. Never had one, never will. Thought to be the largest carnivorous plant on the planet, the nepenthes rajah drowns small mammals, including rats, in its pitcher trap. It then breaks down its catch and digests its prey. But the most famous carnivorous plant in the world is surely still the Venus flytrap. The Venus flytrap catches its arachnid and insect prey by closing its jaw-like trap around them once they step inside, setting off a hair trigger. What constitutes a nice smell or a bed smell is, of course, subjective. But the flower constantly labelled the ‘Worst Smelling Flower in the World’ is the titan arum, also known as the Corpse Flower. It has gained this name because its scent resembles the rotting corpses of animals. It chooses to adopt this particular odour because its main pollinators are flies and beetles that choose to lay their eggs in dead animals. So blame them. Luckily for those in the immediate vicinity, the Corpse Flower only blooms for between 24 and 48 hours every four to six years. Guess what the longest living organisms on earth are. Trees! There’s a Great Basin bristlecone pine in the White Mountains of California which is 4,850 years old. Its name? Methuselah. However, the oldest known tree in the world is another bristlecone pine which is in the same place, but doesn’t have a name yet. Bristlecone pines are known for being resilient to bad weather and bad soil. They make very polite house guests as a result. A herb is always the leaf of a plant. A spice is derived from a plant’s seed, stem, bark, root, bulb or berry. The tallest tree in the world is a Coast redwood called Hyperion. Cool name, bro. It is 115.92 metres tall (380.3 ft) and lives in the Redwood National Park in California. A strawberry has, on average 200 seeds. Unlike all other fruit, they are located on the outside. Sunflowers may look like just the one flower, but they’re actually hundreds of tiny flowers called florets, all grouped together, which ripen into seeds. Like kids standing on each other’s shoulders under a big coat to get into an 18. Sugar cane is a type of grass. It was first refined in the Indus Valley of north-west India around 5,000 years ago. It didn’t travel west until the eighth century AD. Today, Brazil is the largest exporter of sugar in the world, responsible for around 40 percent of the world’s sugar, producing 42 million tons a year. Sweet. The first ever certified botanical garden was founded in Vatican City by Pope Nicholas. That was way back in 1278 AD. The Atlantic Giant Pumpkin is the heaviest and largest fruit on planet earth. The current record holder was grown by Beni Meier. It weighed 1054 kg. There are around 400,000 species of flower, divided into over 450 different families. Snowdrops are among the first flowers to grow and bloom during British springtime. If you take a close look at the tips of their leaves, you’ll see that they have a small protective shield. This hardened area allows the snowdrop to push up through frozen, hard soil. Julius Caesar described in 54 BC how British warriors used a dye from woad leaves to stain themselves blue. Hundreds of years later, the same dye was used for British police uniforms, a practice which only stopped in 1932. The Gas Plant, or Burning Bush, gives off a vapour which smells strongly of lemon. It gains its name because, when the conditions are right, this vapour sets on fire when met with a match. Ancient Egyptians considered lotus flowers to be sacred and often used them in burial rituals and funereal rites. Blooming in damp wetlands, the lotus is able to remain dormant though alive for many years when there’s a drought. When it rains once more, the flowers return. As such, they became symbols of resurrection and life after death. Established contrarian the Moon Flower only blooms at night. It closes as soon as it comes into contact with the sun in the morning. It also likes listening to emotional rock music and wearing black eyeliner. The world’s smallest flowering plant is wolffia globosa, a type of duckweed often called watermeal. It looks like cornmeal. It also produces the smallest fruit in the world, its utricle. The plants have no roots, so they sit on the surface of the water. The plant is around a third of an inch big, and its fruit is between 0.7 and 1.5 millimetres across. They taste a bit like watercress. Packed full of protein, expect them to become a faddy food before too long. Currently, it's South East Asian countries that cultivate and consume watermeal. Abraham Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks, died as a result of poisoning by white snakeroot. The North American herb contains a toxic alcohol called trematol. Tragically, Nancy Hanks drank milk from a cow which had been grazing on the plant. Around 20,000 species of plant are edible for humans. However, just 20 different species provide 90% of our food. Turns out we’re all fussy eaters. Now you'll be heading to Kew Gardens with a few facts up your sleeve. Don't forget that entry to Kew Gardens is included with The London Pass. We hate to cast aspersions regarding your love for the natural world, but figured you would like to read this.
Matthew Pearson

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