From Blackfriars: leave the tube and head up Blackfriars road (away from the river) towards Ludgate circus. Turn left into Fleet Street and the pub is a about 3 mins walk up Fleet Street, on your right. From Chancery lane: leave the tube and head east towards Holborn Circus. Turn right down Fetter lane before Holborn Circus and walk to the end. Continue down New Fetter lane to Fleet Street. Turn left into Fleet Street and the pub will be on your left a short distance in front of you. The entrance is the left hand passage way as you face the pub. If you use the other one you end up in Scruffy Murphy's.
Street View - click to see the area around the Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese
This pub is something of an institution on Fleet Street. In the heyday of the Street of Shame, you could regularly find the great and (occasionally) the good gathering here to do the business of Fleet Street. Sadly (for some) those years are now over, but the history of Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese actually goes back much further than recent decades. As the sign in the passageway attests, the pub was rebuilt just after the Great Fire of London and there's been a pub on this site for much longer than that. Since Fleet Street's dispersal eastwards, tourists are now the pub's main customers, but that comes as no surprise - the pub oozes character and history: nooks and crannies abound, there are numerous large and small rooms (some with fireplaces) at different levels, dark wood on wall and ceiling, flagstone floors and there's not a right angle in the place. The past clientele reads like a roll-call of literature - Dr. Johnson lived just around the corner, and scribes such as Voltaire, Dickens and Twain have all raised their drinking arms here. Sam Smith's excellent beers add their own touch of quirkiness to the offer, topped off with traditional pub grub. Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese neatly encapsulates the last few hundred years of London history in a single lunchtime - long may it last
reviewed: 21/08/2008
pub features:(click on an icon to see an explanation)
Went on May 8th, is closed on Sunday FYI. Found this out when we went back :(. This was my favorite pub. Unfortunatly some of the other must sees were closed on Sat/Sun, Ye old Mitre and Jerusalem to name a few (business district). But this place is really neat. Well I thought so my wife did not like it at all, it gave her the creeps. She said you could feel all of Londons past in it. I just loved it. It goes down a couple levels underground and you can feel the history. Great staff, Sam Smiths pubs from what I saw had £2 pints of the English Cask ale, great stuff and for £2 you cant go wrong, easy drinking!!! Fish and chips were tasty. But again this place is just neat. We wanted to make it our last pub in England but since it was closed we'll just have to come back.
click for directions to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese from wherever you are
private bar for hire
