Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

A total step back into time into old London. A great place to stay and drink and think about what's gone on in this pub over the centuries. The old pictures on the walls help with this. Heaven in London.
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Nick Jackson
Monday, June 27, 2005

As an American, anyting that is older than 1776 is considered old(e). So while on a trip to London, I had the great pleasure of stopping into this pub with my travelling companions, all big fans of Samuel Smiths. We were NOT disappointed.

From the faux casks on Amantillado in the "ancient" (by Yank standards) basement bar to the creaky stairs and the narrow passage ways, I couldnt have been more pleased. I was waiting for the London-Portsmouth Stage to pull up outside at any minute, with Dickens himself hopping down to shake off the cold and grab a seat for a pint or two.

Absolutely brilliant pub! Being an American, we of course got polos and I wear mine with great pride. :)

I think one of the neatest things about this bar however is just outside the front door: the worn stepping stone. To imagine the thousands upon thousands of people who have stepped there to make it so worn. Absolutely Awesome.

We visited quite a few pubs that trip: truth be told, the whole trip was centered around history and pubs, so Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese was a "Two for One" deal and three years later, we are STILL talking about that place whenever we find ourselves at one of the Annapolis watering holes.

Absolutely outstanding.
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Sean M Brown
Thursday, April 28, 2005

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese was built in 1667, just after the Great Fire. A wonderful pub, not seriously damaged by a very extensive enlargement c. 1992 (which demolished a pleasant little bar built during WW1), and a London institution - a late C19 or early C20 book about the pub exists in several editions. The bar on the right as you go in, and the restaurant on the left, have hardly changed since the mid-C19. The beer, Samuel Smith's, is not to everyone's taste (I preferred the Marston's that was served here in the early 1980s), but the brewery do produce a large variety of beer styles, including a decent Germanic wheat beer. I recommend the restaurant also, though this is frequently full, and very popular with tourists. Numerous celebrities have supposedly drunk at the 'Cheese', including Voltaire, Dr. Johnson (I don't think there is any documentary eveidence that he drank there, although the oub has what is supposedly Johnson's chair, but he lived nearby and liked pubs!) and Dickens.
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Malcolm Barres-Baker
Tuesday, May 11, 2004