How the f*** did you find this place? Great hidden London pubs.

[David Peckham]

Further to another thread, London is full of great juicers. Some can be a bit difficult to find.

Here's three I can think of, off the top of my head.

The Mitre around Hatton Garden.

The Nell Gwynne just off The Strand.

The Dove in Hammersmith.

 

[malumbu]

At least two excellent choices, The Old Cheshire Cheese is easy to find but you can get lost once you are in it!

Away from London the Crack (Ye Cracke)  in Liverpool and the Turf Tavern in Oxford.  Both down alley ways.

Off at a slight tangent Sirena's Italian restaurant in the old Royal Doulton building, Black Prince Road, Lambeth.  Down a set up of steps into Narnia.  Sadly closed in 2016 due to redevelopment into office space.

Good thread!

(we were discussing the Cardinal/Windsor Castle near Westminster Cathedral which is hidden away on one entrance)

[Sue]

The Seven Stars in Holborn.

Don't know if the cat still wears a ruff and sits on the bar. The original cat must be long gone.

You have to go up extremely steep wooden steps to reach the loo, and upstairs is quite ....weird.

https://www.thesevenstars1602.co.uk/

Frequented by lawyers, for obvious reasons given its location, but off the main drag.

Edited 20 hours ago by Sue

[malumbu]

Sadly discovered by the masses since I first went there.  Used to be on good terms with Roxy.  Great find.

[Sephiroth]

I enjoyed going to the Roxy in mid noughties for some film documentaries - a great shout

the Royal Oak in tabard st would be my London pick 

[malumbu]

https://www.thesevenstars1602.co.uk/

Reminds me of the Dog and Bell in Deptford, another out the way pub and another hidden gem ling since discovered.  Both the Seven Stars and Dog and Bell have expanded into the adjoining buildings.

Royal Oak in Borough.  Yes, yet another hidden gem!

Posts crossed re Royal Oak

[Sue]

19 minutes ago, Sephiroth said:

I enjoyed going to the Roxy in mid noughties for some film documentaries - a great shout

the Royal Oak in tabard st would be my London pick 

Confused re Roxy - landlady or cinema?!

The main bar of the  Royal Oak is packed on one day every December for the "Sheffield carols".

As is (on another day) that tiny little pub up Richmond Hill, on the left as you  go up, whose name escapes me.

[Sephiroth]

Roxy is a bar on borough high st.  Didn’t used to be obvious from outside tho 

[malumbu]

Roxy Beaujolais owner of the 7 stars.  

[Sephiroth]

Ha. Cross-purposes so. My bad

[CPR Dave]

The Nags Head and the Wilton Arms, both on Kinnerton Street were quite off the beaten track back street pubs.

 

Easier to find all these places with Google maps now!

[David Peckham]

18 hours ago, malumbu said:

At least two excellent choices, The Old Cheshire Cheese is easy to find but you can get lost once you are in it!

Is it a Sam Smith's? A genuinely hilarious place to watch tourists get lost. You can smell when somebody's been in there because of the smoke from the fires.

 

17 hours ago, Sue said:

The Seven Stars in Holborn.

I almost put it on my list, Sue. Would you call it Holborn, though? It's a bit of a no mans land around there, but the walk from The Seven Stars to The Ship, near Holborn station, via Lincoln's Inn Fields is one of London's great WTF moments.

It's a toss up as to whether the upstairs toilets in The Seven Stars or the downstairs ones in The Nell Gwynne are the more difficult to negotiate.

I reckon the pub you're thinking about on Richmond Hill could be The Roebuck. It always reminds me of The Prince of Wales in Highgate.

 

15 hours ago, malumbu said:

Roxy Beaujolais owner of the 7 stars.  

She used to have The Three Greyhounds in Soho, around the same time as Norman had the Coach & Horses and The French House was run by a very tall bloke with a bow tie. I think he was called Lesley. 

Roxy had a very brief career as a TV chef. I've got a signed copy of her cookbook somewhere.

16 hours ago, Sephiroth said:

 

the Royal Oak in tabard st would be my London pick 

A great pub. Any pub that serves whitebait, pork pies and gammon, egg & chips is doing many things right.

15 minutes ago, CPR Dave said:

The Nags Head and the Wilton Arms, both on Kinnerton Street were quite off the beaten track back street pubs.

 

Easier to find all these places with Google maps now!

The Nag's is fantastic. Run by an ex Grenadier Guard called Kevin Moran, who will boot you out for using a mobile phone, not showing proper respect to the bar staff or putting your jacket on the back of a chair rather than using the coat stand. Opposite Ghislaine Maxwell's old place as well, which made things interesting.

A slightly more difficult to find pub around there is The Grenadier. The only pub I've ever found that sold 'Bar Sausages'.