UK Travel Blog

If Britain had just one thing to offer visitors I’d say a good old fashioned properly British pub would be high on the list of contenders, so with that in mind here’s a run down of some of the contenders…

The Eagle in Cambridge is might not at first glance seem like the most historic pub at least from the outside, but the history of this establishment is all indoors.

In the RAF room within the pub, visitors can read all the signatures and other scribblings made by RAF men usually either scraped into the plaster or written in lipstick. This corner has been preserved since WWII and what Winston Churchill called “The Few” in his famous speech.

Possibly the most famous aspect of The Eagle happened on the evening of Saturday, 28th February, 1953 when Francis Crick and James Watson burst into the Eagle pub and announced “we’ve done it, we’ve discovered the secret of life”. What they announced was the discovery of DNA which went on to win them the Nobel prize.

The Café Royal is one of Edinburgh’s finest bars in terms of architecture and pure historic value. Originally dating from 1826, the current building dating from 1863 is situated right across the street from it’s original namesake but kept the ornate stained glass, murals, mirrors and wood panellings.

The food has won many accolades from respected travel and restaurant writers over the years. The Café Royal is worth a visit even if just to soak up the Victorian atmosphere.

The Olde Cheshire Cheese located at 145 Fleet Street, London, is one of those pubs that appears in every guidebook and for good reason. The original pub dated from 1538 but was destroyed in the 1666 Great Fire of London.

The “new” Olde Cheshire Cheese contains a mixture of charms from old wood panelling, some possibly original, to the lack of natural light which tends to give the inside of the pub a slight gloomy look that you might expect to find in a Dickens novel. There is even a 13th Century cellar which is thought to have been part of a Carmelite Monastery.

A further reason for it’s fame is the quality of regulars the pub has attracted over the years with names such as Oliver Goldsmith, Mark Twain, Alfred Tennyson and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The links to Dickens novels may not be entirely in the imagination as reports suggest he also frequently spent time there.

The Philharmonic Dining Rooms in Liverpool also known simply as “The Phil” dates from 1898 and is designed in the Art Nouveau style which was fashionable at the time.

The hotel features what can best be described as the most ornate front entrance of any hotel with amazing gold carvings. Inside it has a slightly unusual point of fame – the gents toilets which feature marble urinals.

A popular location with many from the swinging 60’s, the hotel remains a popular tourist stop partly for it’s architecture and partly because it was also a favourite of the Beatles. As John Lennon once said – one of the prices of fame was “not being able to go to the Phil for a drink”.

The Olde Trip to Jerusalem in Nottingham lays claim to being the oldest “inn” in England having apparently existed on this spot since 1189 AD.

According to legend at least the inn came by the name as it was built in the year Richard the Lionheart set off on his crusades, and since he favoured Nottingham Castle as his home, it was from here that he and the knights went to do battle with the Saracens in Jerusalem.

As well as being the oldest inn anywhere in the UK, the Olde Trip to Jerusalem has another unique feature. The building is carved into the rocks behind it and thus a cave network stretches out behind the inn into the rockface. Worth a visit even if just for the uniqueness, the inn can be found below Nottingham Castle.

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