Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, London

Is this the oldest pub in London?

Walking into Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese certainly feels like that. It is a Grade II listed public house at 145 Fleet Street and is featured on Campaign for Real Ale’s National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors.

There has been a pub at this location since 1538, and like many others in the area, it was rebuilt after the Great Fire of London in 1666. What makes Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese an interesting visit is that the pub is operated by Samuel Smith Old Brewery, and not the usual chains. Granted Sam Smith pubs are chains, however, their pubs seem to have a bit of character about them and I do like their porters.

There are various layers to this pub with each room seeming to be decorated from timespans of the history of the pub. From dark and gloomy rooms where you can imagine furtive meetings to almost jail like whitewashed rooms.

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Literary fame

Charles Dickens has been known to use the establishment and reference to the pub can be found within A Tale of Two Cities, following Charles Darnay’s acquittal on charges of high treason, Sydney Carton invites him to dine, “drawing his arm through his own” Carton leads him to Fleet Street “up a covered way, into a tavern … where Charles Darnay was soon recruiting his strength with a good plain dinner and good wine”.

Agatha Christie author of “The Million Dollar Bond Robbery,”features the pub, with Hercule Poirot dining here.

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Can you spot the parrot?

Did you know that the pub had an African Grey parrot by the name of ‘Polly’? He became a celebrity due to his temper and antics. When he died in 1926 at the age of 31, his obituary was published in over 200 newspapers!