Part of our Best Pubs in London microsite. Is your local listed?
Next to, named after, and of a piece with Holborn Viaduct, this gorgeous corner pub is rightly famous. Its wedge-shaped profile is familiar to anyone who's walked into the City from Holborn, to the historic crossroads beside the Old Bailey, where once criminals were hanged.
Its interior is a gentle riot of marble, mirror and painting, culminating in four depictions of the statues of the viaduct. It's almost too sumptuous. The eyeballs become overwhelmed and quickly return back to the table.
This is a Fuller's pub, with the usual range of beers. The Viaduct also touts its gin selection, offering botanical treats in bathtub glasses. The place looks like an old gin palace, and they even have a sign to say so.
The other notable feature is the cellar, said to contain cells either from Newgate prison or else the neighbouring Giltspur Street Compter. We've never been entirely convinced. Old maps do not align the present building with either of those historic structures. Plus, we've been down there, and the individual 'cells' could just as easily be structural supports, or divisions for different barrels. The jury is still out... quite literally if a major trial has just finished across the road at the Old Bailey.
Images below are from 2015, but the place never changes and they are still largely an accurate reflection of the pub's current look.
