Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

Coming upon Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, you would be forgiven for thinking at first that it is closed, what with the blackened bay window that doesn’t let any light out. Don’t despair, the entrance is actually in the small passage leading away from Fleet Street on the left. Yes, that alleyway that looks like this ideal hiding place for a cut-throat. Don’t worry, the most dangerous people you are likely to meet here are drunken bankers. You used to also meet drunken journalists there but now that all the press have decamped to shiny glass high-rises in the Docklands, you only have the bankers left.

The sign on top of the door gives the tone of the place immediately: “Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, rebuilt 1667”. Presumably because it was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. Who knows how long it had been standing there before that? Going through the door feels like going through a time warp. The wooden floors covered with sawdust, the labyrinth of drinking rooms decorated in dark wood panelling, the rickety stairs, everything suggests that not much has changed since it was last rebuilt. And then there’s the cellar bar in those old brick arches painted white, at the bottom of narrow stairs. Mind your head and hold the handrail when going down.

Once you’ve found somewhere to sit or stand and have managed to make your way to the nearest bar, you’ll discover it’s a Samuel Smith pub and the beer is cheap. Relax and enjoy, this is London at its best.