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Location: Wine Office Court (off Fleet Street)

The traditional view of a good English pub tends to evoke visions of oak beams, open fires, ancient crooked rooms and dark cosy interiors. It's a strange fact that with nearly 5,500 pubs, London has only a very small number of such establishments. Though ancient pubs are ten a penny in the countryside, most in London are fairly new with the great age of pub building spanning only the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. True there are also many Georgian pubs but you will be hard pressed to find any built prior to this. Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is one of the notable exceptions and was re-built after the Great Fire of London in 1666. Numerous bars and dining rooms, tiny passageways, glowing fires and a noble history make this a delight for both the Londoner and visitor. Former patrons read like the Dictionary of National Biography - Dickens, Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, G.K. Chesterton, Thackeray, E.M. Forster, Mark Twain, Conan Doyle, Voltaire, Alexander Pope and of course that great wit and compiler of the first dictionary, Dr. Samuel Johnston amongst many others have made this their home from home.

Today, the place is justifiably one of London's best loved and greatest pubs. The landlord and landlady (Gordon and Debbie Garrity) are consummate professionals, weaving deftly through the general mix of gouty barristers, loyal regulars and curious visitors. The front downstairs bar though small is considered the heart of the pub and is generally packed with locals and 'YOCC' lovers. Opposite you'll find the Chop Room (the personal fiefdom of Mick, a waiter who some say has been at the pub since the Battle of Trafalgar) serving good English food. Here you'll find Dr. Johnston's chair plus a stuffed parrot who in his day was something of a legend. At the celebrations to mark victory at the end of the Great War the bird manically imitated the popping of champagne corks for a good hour before keeling over dead. He received obituaries in the newspapers of forty countries!

The large back room is far more spacious but not as characterful. Upstairs are numerous nooks and crannies housing more rooms crammed with character that seem to open at whim. If you have the ability to bend backwards at an alarming angle while descending creaking stairs, you should be able to reach the cellars. These are formed from the remains of a 13th century monastery which was on the site. There are little alcoves and twitchels as well as yet another bar. Even further beneath the ground but out of bounds to the general public is another chamber thought to be of Roman origin and through which the ancient River Fleet runs.

It is a testament to the management and the pub's owners (brewers Samuel Smith) that the genuine and frankly unsurpassed atmosphere of the place has