A 1730 Fitzrovia pub on Rathbone Street with a ground-floor tap room, basement snugs and a first-floor pie room, refurbished in late 2025.
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.