London's Best Pubs

Via my old friend Tolstoy I found this article in The Times the other day, boosting Peter Haydon's newly published guide to London's Best Pubs (so new, in fact, that it doesn't appear to be on Amazon yet; although I discover that he has previously written An Inebriated History of Britain - wish list!).

The feature excerpts Haydon's 'Top Ten', and I was glad to see one of my very great favourites, The Seven Stars, on his list, along with some others that I know - The White Horse, The Red Lion, The Princess Louise, and The Coach and Horses. Actually, none of the latter are great pubs (well, The Lion maybe, but not the others); though The Coach is at least a deservedly famous one.

I was disappointed not to see other beloved hangouts of mine like The Flask in Hampstead (where I first met one of my real life 'unsuitable role models', John Hyman) or The Colton Arms in West Kensington (my 'local' whenever I do manage a trip back) included. But it's an impossible task to try to create a representative list; London has so many great pubs (despite the vile incursions of the 'wine bar' model over the past 20 years, and the almost-as-bad proliferation of the character-free 'superpub' - All Bar One, Wetherspoon's, there is a place in hell waiting for you). Yes, so very many great pubs. It's one of the few things I really like about London, one of the few things I miss about England. I am fighting back tears of nostalgia as I sit here typing this.

I was wondering if I could come up with a Top 10 list of my own; but I am alarmed to discover that I can no longer remember the names of many of my former favourite watering-holes. Well, it is over 7 years since I lived there now, and a full 19 months since my last visit. I'm sure most of the names would come back to me as soon as I return (or perhaps even if I were just to pore over a London A-Z for a while), but they're not filed in 'current memory'.

I'll give the matter some more thought.

Little Anthony challenged me a while ago to name my 10 Favourite Pubs In Oxford. That might be an easier task.

(There's also this article presenting a selection of the best pubs in the whole of England and Wales. I don't think I've been in any of them. So many boozers, so little time!)