There’s no single oldest pub in London, because it depends what you count. The site, the building and the date on the sign usually tell three different stories, and the sign is the least reliable of the three. Dr James Wright, writing for Historic England, says it plainly. “The dates painted on pub signs can be inaccurate.”
So this list sorts the famous claims by what the evidence supports. Most of it comes from Historic England’s investigation, which checked them against archives, archaeology and tree-ring dating. Where Historic England didn’t look, we’ve used the pubs’ own records, the London Museum and other guides, and we say which.
| Pub | What it claims | What the evidence says |
|---|---|---|
| The George Inn, Southwark | 16th century | Inn on the site by about 1542, part of the 1677 rebuild still standing |
| Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, Fleet Street | 1667 (most guides), cellars older | Recorded by 1680, earliest parts late 17th century |
| The Seven Stars, Holborn | 1602 | Probably built in the 1680s |
| The Spaniards Inn, Hampstead | 1585 | Grade II listed, described as 16th century, not checked by Historic England |
| The Prospect of Whitby, Wapping | 1520 | Building appears to be 18th and 19th century |
| Ye Olde Mitre, Holborn | 1546 | Established in the 1770s |
| The Mayflower, Rotherhithe | about 1550 | Earliest parts from the 1780s, rebuilt in the late 1950s |
| Hoop and Grapes, Aldgate | 1593, oldest licensed house in the City | Building late 17th century, a pub only from 1920 |
| The White Hart, Drury Lane | 1216 | The pub cites the Old Bailey archives, no independent source found |
Why so few London pubs are really old
No historic pubs survived the Great Fire of London in 1666, according to Historic England. So the strongest claims are either just outside the burned area, like the George in Southwark, or were built after the fire, like the Cheshire Cheese.
Then the survivors kept changing. The Mayflower was bombed in the Blitz and rebuilt in the 1950s, and the Prospect of Whitby’s building is 18th and 19th century. As one r/london commenter put it, “I guess it depends how you class oldest.”
1. The George Inn, Southwark
The George Inn has the best claim to be London’s oldest pub, and Historic England says so. A map of Southwark shows an inn on the site by about 1542. It was rebuilt in the 1620s, partly rebuilt in 1670, then burned in the great fire of Southwark in 1676.
The tenant, Mark Weyland, began rebuilding it in 1677. Part of that rebuild survives, the western end of the south range, which makes the George London’s only surviving galleried inn. The pub’s claim to fame is a mention in Dickens’s Little Dorrit. It’s #38 on our list of the best pubs in London.
2. Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, Fleet Street
The Cheshire Cheese is the next-best claim. It first appears by name in a ballad published in 1680, and the earliest parts of the building, including the brick-vaulted cellar, date to the late 17th century.
Most guides date the building to 1667, the year after the Great Fire. Historic England rejects the older stories, that the cellars were built in the 13th century for a Carmelite monastery or that there was a pub on the site in 1538. Dickens, W. B. Yeats and P. G. Wodehouse drank here. Polly, a famously foul-mouthed African Grey parrot, lived here from around 1895 to 1926, according to Living London History, and she’s still behind the bar, stuffed.
3. The Seven Stars, Holborn
The Seven Stars claims 1602, and its frontage says so. Pub historians Geoff Brandwood and Jane Jephcote put the building in the 1680s instead. The London Museum calls it a survivor from before the Great Fire, which stopped some distance away. The building itself is later. It’s Grade II listed, and it sits between the Royal Courts of Justice and Lincoln’s Inn.
4. The Spaniards Inn, Hampstead
The Spaniards Inn says it was built in 1585, as a tollgate on the Finchley boundary. The London Museum calls it a Grade II listed 16th-century pub, and The Londoner counts it among the handful of London pubs really built in the 16th and 17th centuries. Historic England’s investigation didn’t cover it.
The London Museum says rioters in the Gordon Riots of 1780 stopped here on their way to Kenwood House, and the landlord kept them drinking until soldiers arrived. The pub adds that rumour has it Dick Turpin was born here.
5. The Prospect of Whitby, Wapping
The Prospect of Whitby says it was built in 1520 and calls itself the oldest riverside tavern in the country. Historic England doesn’t agree. The building appears to date from the 18th and 19th centuries, and the 1520 date didn’t appear until the 1950s, possibly as a marketing campaign.
The Londoner says it sits on a Tudor site, and the pub says its flagstone floor is original. The London Museum says it was known as the Devil’s Tavern until 1777.
6. Ye Olde Mitre, Holborn
Ye Olde Mitre says it was built in 1546 for the servants of the Bishops of Ely. The building you drink in is much later. The Crown took over the bishop’s estate in 1772, and the Mitre was established during the 1770s. Fire insurance records name licensees in 1791 and 1794.
The pub says the cherry tree now supporting its front is the one Queen Elizabeth danced around with Sir Christopher Hatton. It’s #2 on our best pubs list, for reasons that have nothing to do with its age.
7. The Mayflower, Rotherhithe
A sign inside the Mayflower calls it a restored 16th century public house. Historic England puts its earliest standing parts in the 1780s, when it was the Spread Eagle and Crown. The Blitz left only the ground floor, and it was rebuilt in the late 1950s and renamed after the Pilgrim Fathers’ ship, which took on passengers at Rotherhithe in 1620.
The Londoner went to check and found the interior is actually from 1958. The pub says it’s the only one licensed to sell US postage stamps.
The ones that are old, but not that old
Hoop and Grapes, Aldgate. It claims to be the oldest licensed house in the City of London, and the London Museum says it survived the Great Fire. Historic England says the building is probably late 17th century and was used by wine and brandy merchants throughout the latter 18th and the 19th centuries. It only became a pub in 1920.
The Grapes, Limehouse. Living London History says there’s been a pub here since 1583. The London Museum dates the building to 1720, but The Londoner puts it in the late 18th or early 19th century. Dickens put it in the opening chapter of Our Mutual Friend, and Ian McKellen co-owns it.
The Lamb & Flag, Covent Garden. The first mention of a pub on the site is 1772, and it took its current name in 1833. The poet John Dryden was attacked in the alley beside it in 1679, nearly a century before that first record. The pub says its brickwork is about 1958. It’s #28 on our best pubs list, and it has its own page.
The Guinea Grill, Mayfair. Built in the 1720s, according to The Londoner. That makes the Guinea older than the building at Ye Olde Mitre.
The Cockpit, Blackfriars. Shakespeare and several associates bought the old priory gatehouse on this spot in 1613. The pub building dates from 1860. The Cockpit is #34 on our best list.
The White Hart, Drury Lane. It says the Old Bailey archives show its corner was the first licensed premises in London, in 1216, and that Dick Turpin had a drink here before his hanging in 1739. We found no source outside the pub’s own site for 1216.
If you want to drink in the old ones
Start in Southwark at the George, then cross the river to Fleet Street for the Cheshire Cheese and walk up to Holborn for the Seven Stars and Ye Olde Mitre. For the river, the Prospect of Whitby in Wapping and the Mayflower in Rotherhithe are both on the Thames. Every pub here with a link has its own page with opening hours and busy times, and the rest of the city’s best are on the best pubs in London.