Pub guide

London pubs from famous books

7 authors 路 9 pubs 路 Every pub open and serving when last checked (August 2026)

Some pubs hang a blue plaque and hope. These ones actually made it onto the page: real London taverns that Dickens, Bram Stoker, Conan Doyle and Orwell wrote into famous books. Pick an author, find their pubs, read the passage, then drink in the setting.

Orwell's perfect pub, The Moon Under Water, only ever existed in an essay. These ones you can walk into today. And as ever: if any of them surprises you at the card machine, file a report. If they get it right, nominate them for the Hall of Saints.

The authors

  • Charles Dickens

    1812 to 1870

    Four pubs across four novels, from a galleried Southwark coaching inn to a narrow riverside tavern in Limehouse.

    Little DorritA Tale of Two CitiesOur Mutual FriendThe Pickwick Papers

  • Bram Stoker

    1847 to 1912

    One pub on the edge of Hampstead Heath, caught up in the hunt for a vampire in Dracula.

    Dracula

  • Arthur Conan Doyle

    1859 to 1930

    One Bloomsbury pub opposite the British Museum, disguised as the Alpha Inn in a Sherlock Holmes case.

    The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

  • George Orwell

    1903 to 1950

    One tiny Fitzrovia pub that served as the prole pub in Nineteen Eighty-Four, and turned up in Keep the Aspidistra Flying first.

    Nineteen Eighty-FourKeep the Aspidistra Flying

  • Graham Greene

    1904 to 1991

    One Clapham Common pub, disguised as the Pontefract Arms in The End of the Affair.

    The End of the Affair

  • A. P. Herbert

    1890 to 1971

    One 17th-century riverside pub at Hammersmith, lightly disguised as The Pigeons in The Water Gipsies.

    The Water Gipsies

  • Samuel Pepys

    1633 to 1703

    One Bankside tavern, by tradition the alehouse where Pepys watched the Great Fire consume London.

    The Diary of Samuel Pepys

How this list was chosen

Two rules. First, the pub has to appear in, or be the accepted model for a setting in, a famous published book. Pubs where writers merely drank didn't make the cut, or half of London would qualify. Second, the pub must still be open and serving: no closed doors, no demolished sites, no plaques where a pub used to be. Where a connection is traditional rather than documented, the entry says so.

Which literary pub suits you?

Literary pubs: common questions

Which London pubs did Charles Dickens write about?

The big three are The George Inn in Borough (Little Dorrit), Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese on Fleet Street (the tavern in A Tale of Two Cities) and The Grapes in Limehouse (the model for the Six Jolly Fellowship Porters in Our Mutual Friend). The Spaniards Inn in Hampstead also appears in The Pickwick Papers.

Which London pub appears in Dracula?

The Spaniards Inn on the edge of Hampstead Heath. Bram Stoker set part of the Hampstead chapters around it, and it also appears in Dickens's Pickwick Papers, so it covers two classics in one visit.

Which pub was the Alpha Inn in Sherlock Holmes?

The Museum Tavern at 49 Great Russell Street, opposite the British Museum, is the accepted model for the Alpha Inn in The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle.

Which pub inspired the pub in Nineteen Eighty-Four?

The Newman Arms on Rathbone Street in Fitzrovia. Orwell drank there while working at the BBC, and it's the model for the prole pub Winston visits. It also features in Keep the Aspidistra Flying.

Which pub is in The End of the Affair?

The Pontefract Arms, where Bendrix and Henry Miles drink, is based on The Windmill on Clapham Common. Graham Greene lived on the common's North Side until the Blitz destroyed his house, and set the novel on home ground.

Are these pubs still open?

Yes, every pub in this guide was open and serving when we last checked. That's a rule of the list: no closed pubs, no demolished sites, no plaques where a pub used to be.

What is the oldest literary pub in London?

It depends how you count. The Grapes and The Spaniards Inn both stand on sites dating from 1585, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese was rebuilt in 1667 after the Great Fire, and The George Inn's current building dates from 1677. All four wear their age honestly, which is more than can be said for some pubs with Ye Olde in the name.

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