London does winter better than most cities. The pubs that earn a place here have at least one of three things: a working open fire, a snug with low ceilings and dark wood, or a pew-and-corner geometry that makes a wet Wednesday feel like an event. Several have all three. This is the list of pubs our editors return to between November and March, when sitting indoors with a pint of cask ale is the whole point.
In short
The Holly Bush in Hampstead leads the list on the strength of two working coal fires and the most-intact Georgian interior in north London. The Grenadier in Belgravia takes second on the strength of a single front-room fire and a 200-year-old officers’ mess atmosphere. The Mayflower in Rotherhithe holds the riverside-pub-for-winter title. All sixteen rooms below take walk-ins; reservations recommended only for the gastropub entries (Bull & Last, Anglesea Arms).
None of these is a destination cocktail bar. The drinks list is cask ale, single malt, a passable house red. The point of these pubs is the room and the season. Sitting too close to a coal fire on the second pint of a Hampstead Bitter on a January Saturday is, our editors agree, what London does better than any other city in the world.
The five with the best open fires.
Five pubs where the fire itself is the centrepiece. Sit close, order a pint of bitter, and let the afternoon disappear.
1. The Holly Bush · Hampstead
22 Holly Mount, NW3 6SGMon–Sun 12–23:00Best for: north London on a Saturday
The Holly Bush sits at the top of a cobbled lane off Heath Street. Two working coal fires in the front bars, dark green walls darkened further by 150 years of pipe smoke, and a Georgian interior that the brewery has been smart enough to leave alone. The pub draws a mixed Hampstead crowd — locals who walked over, Heath walkers thawing out, and a steady weekend trickle of visitors who heard about it from someone who lives nearby.
Order a pint of London Pride from the Fuller’s cask range and the Sunday roast. Arrive before 12:30 on a winter Saturday to claim a seat near the fire; after 2pm the room is standing-only.
Best for: the post-Heath-walk pint. Best time: Saturday 12:30pm.
2. The Grenadier · Belgravia
18 Wilton Row, SW1X 7NRMon–Sun 12–23:00Best for: the hidden mews pub
The Grenadier hides on a mews behind Hyde Park Corner. Once an officers’ mess for the Duke of Wellington’s regiment, the pub has kept the 200-year-old front-room fire, the redcoat memorabilia, and the famous money-pinned-to-the-ceiling tradition that started as repayment for a debt left by a young officer. Tiny room — capacity is roughly forty — and the fire is the centre of it.
Order a pint of the house bitter and a Bloody Mary (the Grenadier’s recipe is house-roasted-spice and surprisingly serious). Arrive before 5pm on a Sunday.
Best for: the small-room fire moment. Best time: Sunday 4pm.
3. The Spaniards Inn · Hampstead Heath
Spaniards Road, NW3 7JJMon–Sun 11–23:00Best for: a long walk and a long sit
The Spaniards Inn dates to 1585 and feels every bit of it. Multiple low-ceilinged rooms running off a central corridor, two working fires, and a beer garden that the pub heaters keep usable into November. The history claims include Dick Turpin (who is alleged to have been born here), Keats (who wrote about it), and Dickens (who set scenes here in Barnaby Rudge). Inside, the pub feels like a working country inn.
Order the cask Tribute and the burger. Best after a Heath walk that ends here rather than starts here.
Best for: winter Heath walks ending at a fire. Best time: Saturday 3pm.
4. The Mayflower · Rotherhithe
117 Rotherhithe Street, SE16 4NFMon–Sun 12–23:00Best for: the Thames-side winter sit
The Mayflower is the only pub in London with a working fire that you can sit beside while watching the Thames freeze. Built in 1620 on the spot where the Mayflower itself moored, the pub has a wood-panelled back room with the fire and a small wooden jetty out the back where you can stand with a pint and watch the river. The combination of fire-room and river-jetty is the reason it gets the riverside winter pub crown.
Order the house ale and the fish pie. Take the Overground to Rotherhithe and walk five minutes.
Best for: the riverside winter pint. Best time: Sunday 1pm.
5. The Star Tavern · Belgravia
6 Belgrave Mews West, SW1X 8HTMon–Sun 11–23:00Best for: the local that feels like a club
The Star is the other Belgravia mews pub and the one regulars choose over the Grenadier for warmth. Two working fires, low ceilings, dark wood, and a regular crowd that has been sitting in the same seats since before the building was Grade II listed. Famously the room where the Great Train Robbery was planned in 1963.
Order the Fuller’s ESB. Friday after work is the pub at its best.
Best for: the after-work Friday pint. Best time: Friday 6pm.
“A great London winter pub is at most fifteen feet across, has two working fires, and is full by 1pm on a Saturday. Anything more is a gastropub trying to be a pub.”
The six with the most-intact Victorian interiors.
Six pubs where the room itself does the work. No fire required — the etched glass, the snug partitions, the worn brass and the dark mahogany are the warmth.
6. The Princess Louise · Holborn
208 High Holborn, WC1V 7BWMon–Sun 11–23:00Best for: the best Victorian interior in London
The Princess Louise has the most-intact Victorian pub interior in London. The Sam Smith’s brewery restored the original snug partitions in 2007, so the room is now what it was in 1891 — etched glass screens, mirrored back bar, individual drinking compartments. The drinks are cheap (Sam Smith’s own brewery price) and limited to the house range. The room is the reason to go.
Order a pint of Old Brewery Bitter and sit in any of the snugs. Cash only on some nights.
Best for: a pub interior preserved as a museum. Best time: Tuesday 7pm.
7. The Black Friar · Blackfriars
174 Queen Victoria Street, EC4V 4EGMon–Sun 11–23:00Best for: the Arts and Crafts interior
The Black Friar’s 1905 Arts and Crafts interior is the most-photographed pub room in London. Bronze relief panels of friars at work and play, hand-carved marble inlays, mosaic ceilings — commissioned for the original Carmelite friary site. The room is small but the detail rewards careful looking. The back bar is the most-extraordinary 100 square feet in any London pub.
Order a London-brewed cask ale. Best on weekday evenings when the City crowd is fed and the room quietens.
Best for: the Arts and Crafts pub interior. Best time: Wednesday 7:30pm.
8. Ye Olde Mitre · Hatton Garden
1 Ely Court, EC1N 6SJMon–Sat 11–23:00 (closed Sun)Best for: the pub you have to look for
Ye Olde Mitre hides down a courtyard off Hatton Garden — you walk past it twice before finding the entrance. The pub dates to 1546, has two small rooms (each with a fireplace, sometimes lit), and serves a strong rotation of cask ales. Drinking here is one of the most-London experiences available in zone one. Closed weekends, which keeps it for City workers and people who know.
Order whatever guest ale is on. Best at lunch on a Friday before the bar fills.
Best for: the secret-pub midweek visit. Best time: Friday 12:30pm.
9. The Lamb & Flag · Covent Garden
33 Rose Street, WC2E 9EBMon–Sun 11–23:00Best for: the busiest cosy pub on the list
The Lamb & Flag is the oldest pub in Covent Garden — 1772, on the alley where John Dryden was beaten up in 1679. The downstairs bar holds about forty standing; the upstairs room has bench-seat snugs that work for two. Sundays it heaves; Wednesdays at 6pm it feels like every Covent Garden pub should.
Order the cask Doom Bar and stand at the front bar. Weekday early evening is the window.
Best for: a Covent Garden pint with history. Best time: Wednesday 6:30pm.
10. The Old Bell Tavern · Fleet Street
95 Fleet Street, EC4Y 1DHMon–Sun 11–23:00Best for: post-Great-Fire Fleet Street
The Old Bell was built by Sir Christopher Wren in 1670 to house the workers rebuilding St Bride’s church after the Great Fire. The pub has been continuously trading since. Three small rooms, the front bar with the original Wren-era timbers, and a back room that has seen four centuries of newspaper journalists drink through their afternoons.
Order a pint of the rotating Nicholson’s cask. Best on weekday evenings.
Best for: Fleet Street drinking history. Best time: Thursday 6:30pm.
11. The Harp · Covent Garden
47 Chandos Place, WC2N 4HSMon–Sun 11–23:00Best for: the best cask range in central
The Harp is a one-room pub with ten cask handles and a deeply-loyal regular crowd of cask drinkers. The interior is Victorian and unpretentious — mirrors, dark wood, a worn upstairs snug. The pub was CAMRA National Pub of the Year in 2010 and has held the central-London cask crown ever since. No music. No flat-screens.
Order whatever Harvey’s Sussex Best is pulling. The upstairs snug works for two.
Best for: a serious cask pint in central. Best time: Tuesday 7pm.
The five gastropub-leaning rooms.
Five rooms where the food is as much the reason to go as the fire. Reservations recommended for the dining areas; the bars take walk-ins.
12. The Bull & Last · Kentish Town
168 Highgate Road, NW5 1QSMon–Sun 12–23:00Best for: the gastropub at the edge of the Heath
The Bull & Last is the south-Heath gastropub equivalent of the Holly Bush. Two open fires — one in the bar, one in the upstairs dining room — and a kitchen that produces what is, our editors agree, the best Scotch egg in London. The cask ale rotation is short but well-chosen.
Order the Scotch egg, the Sunday roast and a pint of the house Five Points Pale. Book the upstairs dining room for the post-Heath-walk lunch.
Best for: a serious Sunday roast by a fire. Best time: Sunday 2pm.
13. The Anglesea Arms · South Kensington
15 Selwood Terrace, SW7 3QGMon–Sun 12–23:00Best for: the South Ken local
The Anglesea Arms sits in the Boltons district on a quiet residential street. The front bar is a working fire, the back conservatory works for dinner, and the food kitchen is run by an alumna of St John. The pub manages the difficult trick of feeling like a neighbourhood local and a destination gastropub at the same time.
Order the steak and kidney pie and a pint of the house cask. Book the back room for dinner.
Best for: a serious dinner in a pub. Best time: Thursday 7pm.
14. The Dove · Hammersmith
19 Upper Mall, W6 9TAMon–Sun 11–23:00Best for: the riverside log fire
The Dove is the second riverside pub on this list. The small front bar has a working log fire and is the most-photographed cosy pub corner in west London. The back terrace overlooks the Thames at Hammersmith Bridge. Charles II is said to have drunk here, William Morris lived next door, and Hemingway drank here when he was in London.
Order a pint of the Fuller’s ESB and the daily pie. Best on a January afternoon.
Best for: the second-best riverside fire. Best time: Saturday 2pm.
15. The Coach & Horses · Soho
29 Greek Street, W1D 5DHMon–Sun 11–23:00Best for: the Soho bohemian pub
The Coach & Horses on Greek Street was Jeffrey Bernard’s pub and remains the closest thing Soho has to a working Bohemian local. Two small rooms, a worn carpet, and a regular crowd that includes published writers, retired actors and very loud Soho drinkers. No fire, but the room itself is warm enough to count.
Order a pint of London Pride and look around. Tuesdays are quietest.
Best for: the working Soho local. Best time: Tuesday 7pm.
16. The Cow · Westbourne Park
89 Westbourne Park Road, W2 5QHMon–Sun 12–23:00Best for: the west London gastropub-pub
The Cow on Westbourne Park Road is the most-frequented west London gastropub among our editors. The downstairs bar has a small open fire, the upstairs dining room runs a serious kitchen, and the Guinness pours are among the best north of the river. The crowd is mid-thirties Notting Hill professionals; the room is dark wood and red leather.
Order Guinness, the half-dozen oysters and the prawn skin sandwich. The downstairs bar takes walk-ins.
Best for: a Notting Hill winter night. Best time: Friday 7pm.
How to use this list.
The Holly Bush, Grenadier, Spaniards and Star all run at capacity from 12pm on winter Saturdays — arrive earlier or accept standing. The Princess Louise and the Black Friar work best on weekday evenings, after the immediate post-work surge but before the room closes at 11pm. The riverside entries (Mayflower, Dove) reward dry but cold days — bring a coat for the jetty stand. The gastropub entries (Bull & Last, Anglesea Arms, Cow) need reservations for the food but never for the bar.
For wider London winter coverage, see our Christmas cocktails London guide and the best cocktail bars in London editorial. For garden-pub coverage in the warmer half of the year, see our London garden bars guide. The full London city hub covers every neighbourhood; the craft beer index covers ale-focused rooms across every city.