The Bell, Cannon Street

pub details:

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location:

Cannon Street

address:

29 Bush Lane, EC4R 0AN

phone:

0871 258 8715*
* calls cost 10p/minute, click here for more about 0871 numbers.

nearest stations:

Cannon Street railway station London Underground station
(60m) - zone 1

Monument London Underground station
(220m) - zone 1

Bank Docklands Light Railway (DLR) station London Underground station
(240m) - zone 1

Mansion House London Underground station
(330m) - zone 1

Bankside pier River Thames boat service
(560m)

how to find it:

Cannon Street: turn right out of the station and next right, you'll see the pub a little down the hill on your left. Monument: leave via the Cannon Street exit and walk west towards Cannon Street Station, just before you get to the station turn left down Bush Lane and you'll see the pub on the left.

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nearby attraction(s):

Bank of England Museum (370m)

Guildhall Art Gallery & Roman London's Amphitheatre (500m)

Vinopolis (510m)

Not so long ago, this was one of many old-style, untouched, City pubs, but now the Bell's something of an endangered species. Its tiny size means it gets packed to the gunwales at commuting times, but the service is prompt and polite and the range of real ale on the hand pumps is pretty well looked after. Claiming to be one of the few houses that survived the Great Fire of London in 1666, much of the original structure of the building survives (back then this one would actually have been on the banks of the Thames). Still half-timbered throughout, the time-warp interior décor is in keeping with the old-fashioned service and we don't want it to change a thing. Devotees of style bars and gastropubs won't be battering down the doors to get in, but if you want a pub that harks back to times past you should give it a go. The recent introduction of two TV screens has changed things somewhat, but not so much as you might expect. See it while you can and before the interior ends up in the Museum of London as an example of 20th century social history.

reviewed:
10/09/2008