I’ve visited hundreds of pubs in the UK: If you visit only one boozer in the whole of the capital, make it this one

LONDON tour guide, John Warland, who has visited hundreds of boozers in the English capital has named Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese as the city’s must-visit pub.

John is the founder of Liquid History Tours where punters are taken to some of the capital’s lesser-visited drinking holes.

He has also written two books on the subject, Liquid History and Local Legends Hidden Pubs of London, making him a proper pub expert.

Speaking exclusively to Sun Travel, John said: “If you were to visit one pub, make it Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese on Fleet Street”.

“It was originally built in the 16th century, then it burnt down in 1666 and got rebuilt in 1667 – and that’s what you enter to this day.

“It’s kind of dark and gloomy on the outside, with a little snickety entrance just off Fleet Street that has a beautiful view of St Paul’s Cathedral.

“It was mentioned in Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities – when Charles Darnay retreats there for a simple supper and a few fine wines.

“It’s a place that was frequented by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Theodore Roosevelt, and it was the real social network until the 1980s when Fleet Street kind of comes to an end in terms of journalism.

“The pub itself has six or seven storeys in total, and you can descend to the bowels of the basement – there’s no music, there’s no jukeboxes and there’s no televisions.

“The pub is run by Samuel Smith breweries, so the drinks offering is traditional – it’s quite limited in its own respect, as there’s no Guinness, there’s no Smirnoff, but it’s a place to retreat from the modern world.

“Get a simple drink, sit by the fire – sit where Dickens sat, see where Dr Johnson possibly wrote some of his entries to the dictionary.

“That sense of layers of history… that’s an absolute sort of crackerjack, with all these nooks and crannies, despite being on the well-beaten tourist trail, between St Paul’s and Covent Garden.”

The pub is also home to another famous two-legged resident, who was so well-loved that they were stuffed and displayed behind the bar – Polly the parrot.

John said: “Polly the Parrot can still be found behind the bar – she lived in the pub for years, then passed away in 1926, and because all the journalists loved Polly so much, they recorded her passing in around 200 newspapers from Cape Town to Montreal, New Zealand to Peking.

“She’s still behind the bar in a glass cabinet looking down on you as sort of the mascot of the pub.

 “I think a great historic pub should make you feel something, and this has 400 years worth of history, as well as being a lovely place to tuck yourself away with a pint of stout and a sticky toffee pudding.”

Expect to pay London prices for pints, with main meals starting from as little as £14.25

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese has a 4/5 star rating from thousands of reviews on TripAdvisor.

Punters described the boozer as “amazing” and “very Dickensian” in their online reviews.

One person said: “If Charles Dickens dropped in he would have found little has changed. From a narrow alley off busy Fleet Street, you enter thru old old doors and instantly get transported 500 years back.”

Earlier this year, John named another pub to visit in London – you can read about it here.

Meanwhile, the Sun’s Head of Travel (Digital) Caroline McGuire thinks she’s found the most child-friendly pub in London, with a bowling alley and a huge slide.