Welcome back to Vittles Pub Guide week! This week, we’ve published five instalments of Jimmy McIntosh’s fully updated guide to London’s best pubs, beginning on Monday with Central London. We’ve since had guides to West London, South London, East London and North London. Today we conclude with what Jimmy believes are the 10 best pubs in the whole of the city. There’s also a map with all 99 pubs from this week’s guides as well as those which were included in the 2022 Vittles pub guide. A huge thank you to Jimmy, to those who’ve contributed and of course to you all for reading. Cheers!
All entries and photographs by Jimmy McIntosh, unless otherwise stated. Artwork by Dan Biddulph. Click here for a reminder of ‘the rules’.
So, here we are. The top 10, unarguable, 100 percent objectively best pubs in London. These are the places you can spend all day and night in and never get bored – the most atmospheric, the most welcoming, the most beautiful the capital has to offer. Visit them, cherish them, enjoy them.
8-10 Poundfield Rd, IG10 3JN
‘Oh, it’s a Vittles and Dead Pubs list of best boozers – you’re just being a contrarian putting a pub in the labyrinthine Debden suburbs as the tenth best in the capital,’ you might be thinking. You would be wrong. The Black Deer is more than deserving of its place in the pantheon of great London pubs: it’s a 1962-built beauty that oozes charm and vintage glamour. The first time I came across it, after walking through an endless, undulating desert of pebbledash and prim privet hedges for what seemed like an eternity, was a bit like what I’d imagine people who see the Mona Lisa for the first time feel like.
Beyond its succulent, ruby-rouge interior and sun-kissed front garden, The Black Deer is notable for being remarkably affable, with both staff and regulars more than willing to engage in long conversations with you. The hooch on offer is pretty standard, but with excellent, clean pipes, which can often be a bit of a rarity for pubs slightly further out of town. For me, there are few greater pleasures in life than travelling to uncharted territory to go boozing. The Black Deer is the very best of outer London, and the kind of place that’ll have you googling Debden house prices for.
49 Beak St, W1F 9SF
Perhaps somewhat controversially, considering The Old Coffee House’s stunning interior, but whenever I come to the ninth best pub in London I stand outside, opposite Third Man Records. It’s not even a particularly good spot to vertical drink: there’s no ledge to rest your pint, the pavement is narrow and cars squeeze past the Marshall Street bollards every two minutes. But for me it signals the start of summer, and for the past half-decade I’ve found myself drawn to this place on Beak Street come April for my post-work *cinq à septs. *Good pubs act as signs and signifiers for moments or eras in your life: oh yes, I remember we used to always drink there.
The pub itself dates back to 1772, when it was – obviously – a coffee house. It was rebuilt towards the end of the 1800s and today is a long, cosy, bric-a-brac-filled establishment, with low-level lighting and dark corners perfect for plotting, gossiping and schmoozing. There are some great taverns in Soho, but none excite the senses quite like this independently run corner plot. That there’s also a strong and steady drink selection – and that it doesn’t get as busy as places like The Blue Posts – means the Old Coffee House takes the deserved mantle of best pub in the area.
19 New Rd, KT2 6AP
The Park Tavern proclaims it is ‘Kingston’s Best Kept Secret’, and after repeated visits, that’s hard to dispute. Almost totally covered in foliage, it blends into the street of fairly nondescript houses by Kingston Gate, as if trying to disguise itself. I’ve always received a warm welcome, but sometimes a look that asks, ‘How did you find our pub?’ I wonder if they think I’m lost. Perhaps it’s my facial expression: my eyes take a moment to adjust to the darkness; once they do, I’m always amazed at the collection of pump clips and tankards covering the ceiling. I find myself continually torn between the remarkable vintage Guinness and Carlsberg bar fonts and the six real ales it has on rotation. I tend to opt for the ale and on one occasion was warned of the haziness in my choice with an ‘It’s supposed to be like that.’ I gladly accepted it, and delighted in the old-school attention to detail aimed squarely at serving those on the quest for a good pint. Mark Blakeway
1 Arlington Way, EC1R 1XA
Although Clerkenwell is pretty central, it feels on the edge of things – cooler than its West End and City neighbours. The gastropub was born here (The Eagle), as was eating nose-to-tail (for some). Rosebery Avenue, with its towering tenements and London plane trees, is classic Clerkenwell. Walk its length and you’ll pass Mount Pleasant, the city’s largest mail sorting office; it has Clerkenwell Fire Station too, which is more than a century old. But the best building here is The Shakespeares Head, a brickwork box behind Sadler’s Wells, which expresses Clerkenwell cool by way of the carpeted 1960s pub. Inside, Royal Mail staff hunch over its bar in a cosy room lined with velvet banquettes. This is a horseshoe-shaped pub, with most of its original fittings intact. I love the weather-beaten Shakespeare portrait swinging on the post outside, along with the period signs indoors and the curious secondary shelf below the bar. The walls are lined with photos of actors, stage performers and regulars. This is a theatre pub with the feel of a local, and it may sell Clerkenwell’s cheapest pint. Isaac Rangaswami
