Prospect of Whitby

Walk down the cobbled stretch of Wapping Wall and you'll stumble into one of London's most authentically knackered old boozers. The Prospect sits right on the Thames with views across to Rotherhithe, and the interior feels like stepping into a creaky time machine—all dark wood, low ceilings, and the kind of sticky floors that come from centuries of spillage rather than neglect. You're drinking in a place where 17th-century smugglers plotted, where they allegedly hung pirates (hence the gallows outside), and where Dickens allegedly drank. It's properly historic without being precious about it.