BA - The Club - Seven of London’s best pubs with beer gardens

The Prospect of Whitby

Pitched between the Thames and Shadwell Basin, this ancient pub, dating from 1520, rises from the river at low tide on seaweed-flocked beams. Although touristy, it’s the perfect spot to contemplate the smugglers, Jack Tars and scoundrels who once pounded its flagstone floors and lurked in its crooked doorways – some of whom no doubt met with a hangman’s noose like the one flapping eerily in the breeze beside the willow-shaded waterside garden. With history so rich and river so close, you can’t do much better for salty ocean-going, buccaneering atmosphere.
Nearest station: Wapping

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The Windsor Castle

It’s less a castle, more a village local secreted away in the backstreets behind Kensington’s tourist hotspots. But when this pub was built in the 1820s, you could apparently see the real Windsor Castle shimmering in the distance. A doorway heavily laden with Virginia creeper leads to a string of stately oak-panelled drinking rooms, worthy of the pub’s regal name. And to the rear is the crown jewel: a suntrap of a beer garden surrounded by a quadrangle of whitewashed walls that defend your peace and quiet from the city beyond.
Nearest station: Notting Hill Gate

The Clapton Hart

Less a pub, more a multi-roomed experience, The Clapton Hart truly has something for everyone: cosy drinking dens, a lively bar, an intimate dining room plus a spacious beer garden. The peeling paint job and worn wooden trim all add to its threadbare charm. Whether you’re after a raucous weekender, a cheeky mid-afternoon pint, the lively Thursday-night pub quiz or a quiet corner to avoid it, this place succeeds in being all things to all people, with little not to enjoy.
Nearest station: Clapton

The Harwood Arms

With so many awards and plaudits, The Harwood Arms sets lofty expectations. Even though its game-leaning, updated British cuisine is widely regarded as the best in the business, there’s no reason to feel intimidated. This is still a pub through and through, with regulars swilling cask ales at the bar and nibbling on signature Scotch eggs. But most come for the dining, and particularly the sensational nose-to-tail menu (venison tartare or crispy pig’s head, anyone?), now enhanced with delicious meat-free options, plus veg from the rooftop garden. Yum.
Nearest station: Fulham Broadway

The Flask

After the steep haul uphill to Highgate Village, there is no better spot to slake your thirst than The Flask. Nourished by the rarefied air above the city smog and opposite the capital’s highest church, its leafy garden evokes the peace and prosperity of a home-counties inn. When in the full bloom of early summer, this historic pub’s Georgian frontage is spectacular. Come winter, the cosy interior and vaulted snugs are just as enticing, and its Sunday roasts are always piled high.
Nearest station: Highgate

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The Mayflower

For such a historic pub, it’s surprising it was only 1957 when it became The Mayflower – after the famous ship, once moored nearby, that carried the Pilgrim Fathers to America. But everything else is properly old: a 16th-century pub in an 18th-century building on a cobbled backstreet, fitted with a creaking dark-wood interior worthy of a spume-sprayed quarterdeck. It doesn’t get much more nautical than this, especially if you’re out on the riverside jetty-cum-garden. At high tide the water’s so close it’s practically splashing your pint.
Nearest station: Rotherhithe

The Drapers Arms

Not many pubs can boast tympana, Doric pilasters and plain-eared architraves – but then few have the architectural grandeur of The Drapers. A listed building in eggshell blue, its tall windows and light spaces trigger just the right mindful clarity for perusing a tantalising seasonal menu. Whether it’s a quick pit-stop to gulp down a couple of rock oysters in the beer garden, a leisurely Sunday roast, or a long evening of unbridled gluttony in the dining room, a visit to The Drapers will always be sure to reward heart, belly and soul.
Nearest station: Essex Road

An Opinionated Guide to London Pubs

An Opinionated Guide to London Pubs, written by Matthew Curtis and photographed by Orlando Gili, is out 8 April 2021 (£9.95 in paperback; Hoxton Mini Press).