The Newman Arms

The Newman Arms sits on Rathbone Street in Fitzrovia, a five-minute walk from Tottenham Court Road and Goodge Street. A Fitzrovia institution since 1730, it runs a tap room on the ground floor that spills onto the street, sofa snugs in the basement, and a dedicated pie room upstairs. It reopened in October 2025 after a refurbishment that, per The Upcoming, blended the heritage with a lighter modern finish.

This is a pub for a pint and a proper pie, not a big group night. The literary history is real, with George Orwell a regular and the pub often cited as an inspiration for the prole pubs in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Anyone after cocktails or a sports screen should keep walking toward the West End.

The ground floor is a classic tap room that opens onto Rathbone Street, the spot for a standing pint. The basement adds relaxed sofa snugs for a longer sit.

The first-floor pie room is the heart of the place, preserved and updated in the 2025 refit. It is a small, characterful dining room built around the kitchen's pies, and it books up for dinner, so reserve if you want a table.

The bar pours proper pints, with cask ale alongside lager and a tidy wine list, pints landing around 6.50 pounds. It is a pub built on beer and pies rather than a cocktail list.

The pies are the reason to book. The menu leans on organic, British-sourced ingredients, with the Chicken, Ham Hock and Creamed Leek and the Aged Beef Shin and Rib among the standouts, and a pie and a pint coming in under 30 pounds. Time Out rates the kitchen among Fitzrovia's better pub tables.

After-work brings a media and office crowd from the surrounding Fitzrovia studios, packing the tap room and the pavement by early evening. The mood is busy but convivial.

The upstairs pie room draws a quieter, booked-in dinner crowd. It reads as a working Fitzrovia local with a destination kitchen on the floor above.

• "The pie room is special. Proper pies, proper ale, loads of history." — r/london
• "Lovely old Fitzrovia pub, the refurb kept the character. Book upstairs." — Google review (n=470+)
• "Orwell's old haunt and the pies live up to the billing." — Tripadvisor

• A pie and a pint in a historic room
• Real ale in a 1730 tap room
• A booked dinner in the upstairs pie room
• Avoid if you want cocktails or a sports screen

Sources: The Newman Arms official site (2026-05); Time Out London; Hot Dinners; The Upcoming; Google Maps reviews (n=470+).