Ye Olde Watling

You're walking down a narrow medieval street in the shadow of St Paul's, and suddenly you're stepping into a proper old-school London pub that actually has character. Ye Olde Watling sits bang on Watling Street (hence the name, obvs), and the building itself has serious history—it was Christopher Wren's site office whilst he was designing the cathedral. The interior is all dark wood, low beams, and the kind of worn leather that tells you this place has been serving drinks to the same types of people for centuries. It's the sort of pub where tourists and City workers rub shoulders over proper cask ales and traditional pub food that doesn't pretend to be anything fancier than it is.