A Map Of Fictional London Pubs

Will Noble
By Will Noble Last edited 101 months ago
A Map Of Fictional London Pubs

Not only does London have many of the best pubs in the world, it's got many of the best fictional pubs too. That's why we've put together this map of fictional London pubs.

From books, film and TV, some of these pubs are inspired by real ones, some are actual pubs used as film locations, and some appear to have been conjured out of thin air.

This maps features some of our favourites, but we've only scraped the surface. If you'd like to see a fictional pub added to our map, let us know what it is, which piece of fiction it's from, and give us a quote/film clip featuring the pub too.

The Tabard, The Canterbury Tales
Location: Talbot Yard, Borough

Bifel that in that season on a day, In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay, Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage, To Caunterbury with ful devout corage, At nyght was come into that hostelrye, Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye, Of sondry folk, by aventure yfalle, In felaweshipe, and pilgrimes were they alle, That toward Caunterbury wolden ryde; The chambres and the stables weren wyde, And well we weren esed atte beste.

The Duke of Burgandy, Passport to Pimlico
Location: Somewhere in Pimlico

The White Hart, The Pickwick Papers
Location: 61/2 Borough High Street

He [Jingle] was yet on his way [back] to the White Hart, when two plump gentleman and one thin one entered the yard, and looked round in search of some authorised person of whom they could make a few inquiries. Mr. Samuel Weller happened to be at that moment engaged in burnishing a pair of painted tops, the personal property of a farmer who was refreshing himself with a slight lunch of two or three pounds of cold beef and a pot or two of porter, after the fatigues of the Borough market; and to him the thin gentleman straightway advanced.

The Proles Arms, Nineteen Eighty-Four
Location: Widely believed to be inspired by The Newman Arms, Rathbone Place

So long as they (the Proles) continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance. Left to themselves, like cattle turned loose upon the plains of Argentina, they had reverted to a style of life that appeared to be natural to them, a sort of ancestral pattern...Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.

The Mother Black Cap, Withnail & I
Location: The scene was filmed in an actual pub on Tavistock Crescent. Most recently it was called The Tavistock. It's now flats.

The Black Cross, London Fields
Location: Somwehere on Portobello Road

I left the Black Cross around four. It was my third visit. I needed the company, hair-raising though much of it was, and I was doing all right there, under Keith's tutelage.He introduced me to the Polacks and the brothers, or paraded me in front of them. He gave me a game of pool. he showed me how to cheat the fruit machine. I bought a lot of drinks, and endured a lot of savage cajolery for my orange juices, my sodas, my cokes. taking my life in my hands, I ate a pork pie.

The Queen Vic, EastEnders
Location: Somewhere between Walthamstow and Stratford (hence Walford). Or, if you're looking for the original inspiration, Fassett Square in Hackney. That's easier to put on our map.

The Leaky Cauldron, various Harry Potters
Location: Cecil Court (where the Diagon Alley shots was filmed)

For a famous place, it was very dark and shabby. A few old women were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the old barman, who was quite bald and looked like a gummy walnut.

The Six Jolly Fellowship Porters, Our Mutual Friend
Location: The Grapes in Limehouse, which Charles Dickens visited as a child (though it used to be The Bunch of Grapes).

...a tavern of a dropsical appearance, had long settled down into a state of hale infirmity...but it had out-lasted, and clearly would yet outlast, many a better-trimmed building, many a sprucer public-house. Externally it was a narrow lopsided wooden jumble of corpulent windows heaped one upon another as you might heap as many toppling oranges, with a crazy wooden verandah impending over the water; but seemed to have got into the condition of a faint-hearted diver who has paused so long on the brink that he will never go in at all...

The Lion and Unicorn, The Long Good Friday
Location: The Pool of London, near Wapping Old Stairs, where the explosive scene below was filmed.

Samoan Joe's, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Location: The Royal Oak, 73 Columbia Road — used as a filming location.

I asked you to give me a refreshing drink. I wasn't expecting a fucking rainforest! You could fall in love with an orangutan in that!

The Morning Star, The Ballad of Peckham Rye
Location: There are a handful of pubs around Peckham Rye mentioned in Muriel Sparks's miniature masterpiece, including The Morning Star, the name of which has now been changed to The Nag's Head.

His name was Humphrey Place. He was that fellow that walked out on his wedding a few weeks ago. He walked across to the White Horse and drank one bitter. Next he visited the Morning Star and the Heaton Arms. He finished up at the Harbinger. The pub door opened and Trevor Lomas walked in. Trevor was seen to approach Humphrey and hit him on the mouth. The barmaid said ‘Outside, both of you.’ ‘It wouldn’t have happened if Dougal Douglas hadn’t come here,’ a woman remarked.

The Winchester Tavern, Shaun of the Dead
Location: Though it's in north London in the film, the actual pub used for shooting in this Simon Pegg classic (The Duke of Albany) was on 39 Monson Road, New Cross Gate. It's now flats.

The Boar's Head Tavern, the Henry IV plays
Location: Though there were a number of Boar's Heads, the most famous was on Eastcheap.

To conclude, I am so good a proficient in one quarter of an hour, that I can drink with any tinker in his own language during my life.

The Hole in the Wall, First Casualty
Location: The actual Hole in the Wall pub in Waterloo.

'Do you know the Hole in the Wall pub at Waterloo?' he asked. 'Yes'. 'I'll meet you there at six with your identification papers and movement orders.'

The Lamb, Brannigan
Location: Establishing shots were at the actual Leadenhall Market pub, which still exists. We assume the indoor fight scenes were filmed in a studio. Then again, John Wayne was a ruddy maverick.

The Duke of New York, A Clockwork Orange
Location: Shot for the 1971 film at The Old Bottle and Dragon in in Stonegrove, Edgware, near to Stanley Kubrick's home of the time. The pub is now apparently demolished.

I had not put into any of Dim's main cables and so, with the help of a clean tashtook, the red, red kroovy stopped, and it did not take long to quieten the two wounded soldiers, down in the snug in the Duke of New York. Now they knew who was Master and Leader. Sheep, thought I, but a real leader knows always when like to give and show generous to his unders.

The Midnight Bell, Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky
Location: Author Patrick Hamilton was probably inspired by a number of pubs in Fitzrovia, including the Fitzrovia Tavern and the nearby Wheatsheaf.

The Governor’s Wife’s Sister was a different proposition altogether. She was, to begin with thin. She was also dark, and tall, and bony, and ugly. She was, however, all-powerful — the true ruler and organiser of The Midnight Bell. She had, it was widely known, a Head for Business.

The Nag's Head, Only Fools and Horses
Location: The Bolton Hotel, Duke Road, Chiswick and the Middlesex Arms, South Ruislip (both used for establishing shots — interior scenes were done in a studio). The Middlesex Arms is still a pub, so we'll put that one on the map. Del Boy's local has nothing to do with the actual Nag's Head that's now in Peckham.

The Coach and Horses, Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell
Location: The Coach and Horses in Soho, an actual pub, very much still in business.

It takes longer to get a drink in here than it does to get a refund out of the inland revenue.

We want to make this map bigger! Tell us your favourite fictional London pubs in the comments below (along with a short quote or link to a clip) and we might add it.

You can also check out the best real London pubs, with our extensive database.

Last Updated 29 October 2015