Part of our Best Pubs in London microsite. Is your local listed?
Given St Katharine Docks is always a-bustle with tourists, as well as a sizeable residential population, the area comes with a surprising dearth of pubs. The only game in town (unless we count bars like the Slug & Lettuce) is this confection of joinery towards the eastern end.
The Dickens Inn is often dismissed as a 'tourist pub', with an inauthentic 'ye olde' look to the place. This is somewhat ungenerous. The shell of the building is genuinely old — late 18th century, in fact. This was originally a warehouse for tea or spices, and only became a pub when the docks were converted for leisure in the 20th century (after being moved about 100 metres west!). Dickens never drank here, unless he smuggled in a hip flask.
Connections to the great author are, indeed, hard to find. St Katharine Docks are not mentioned in any of his novels (though it gets a passing namecheck in Sketches by Boz). We suspect it got its name just to lure in tourists... and therein is the reason why Londoners can be a bit sniffy about the place.
We shouldn't be. The genuine oak beams certainly lend the place an atmosphere of old times. Meanwhile, the balcony seating on the first floor offers winning views of the rejuvenated docks. It is, unarguably, a pleasing place to enjoy a pint and some hearty food.
So, yeah, there are many trendier places with better stocked bars, but not too many pubs with the look and feel of the Dickens Inn... even if it is a wee bit fictional.
