Toast the City: Who will win Best Boozer in our awards?
The Toast the City Awards are here to celebrate the very best in hospitality of placemaking in the Square Mile. On the eve of the big night, we are highlighting each of the 138 finalists who have beaten off competition from more than 2,000 entrants.
The Best Boozer category celebrates the very best old fashioned City pubs – something the Square Mile has in abundance.
Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese
A Fleet Street labyrinth rebuilt in 1667 after the Great Fire, the Cheese is the City’s most quoted pub, with cellars, snug rooms and a roll-call of literary drinkers from Johnson to Dickens. Its alleyway entrance still feels like a portal to another century and the interior belongs to CAMRA’s heritage inventory for good reason. Shortlisted for Best Boozer in the Toast the City Awards, it represents the Square Mile at its most storied – a place where history does the heavy lifting.
Rising Sun
On Carter Lane, a stone’s throw from St Paul’s, this Grade II corner pub dates from the early to mid-19th century and has the look of a proper City local. The footprint is modest, the frontage handsome, the lineage clear enough to satisfy any pub historian. It’s the sort of place that proves everyday heritage matters as much as grand claims and myth. Its Best Boozer nod feels right – a traditional room that has stood its ground while the neighbourhood changed around it.
Ye Olde Watling
Watling Street was Roman long before the City grew up around it. Tradition says Sir Christopher Wren built it after the Great Fire and even used it as a base while St Paul’s rose again – a story that suits its proximity to the cathedral. Either way, the address wears its age well and keeps a steady crowd. A Best Boozer finalist that feels baked into the streetscape.
The Golden Fleece
Tucked between Bank and St Paul’s, the Golden Fleece is an Edwardian survivor that has been refreshed more than once yet kept its City soul. It has long served office workers, shoppers and the post-work drift, with a downstairs space that’s ideal for watching sport. The Best Boozer shortlisting recognises a central London pub that has adapted without shedding character.
The Jamaica Wine House
Better known as the Jampot, this St Michael’s Alley stalwart stands on the site of London’s first coffee house, opened in 1652 and patronised by Samuel Pepys. Later it became a wine house and then the compact pub we know, tucked into a maze of medieval courts off Cornhill. A City institution with a unique origin story and a worthy Best Boozer contender.
Bunch of Grapes
At the corner of Leadenhall Market, a pub has traded here for centuries, with the current Victorian building carrying the baton. Its position makes it a natural stop for market wanderers and office regulars alike – not least those who work for City PM! – and the interior still shows off period flourishes. A nominee for Best Boozer because location, longevity and everyday usefulness add up to classic City pubkeeping.
The Crutched Friar
Named for the medieval order that settled nearby in the 13th century, this pub keeps alive a slice of Tower-side history. The street itself still bears the friars’ name and the pub points back to the priory that once stood here. Today it remains a busy after-work haunt, nominated for Best Boozer on the strength of deep roots and dependable City service.
Hoop & Grapes
One of the City’s last timber-framed survivors, this Aldgate gem pre-dates the Great Fire, which stopped within yards of the door. The lean of the frontage tells its story before anyone pulls a pint and the name nods to centuries of wine and beer under one roof. A rightful Best Boozer finalist that proves age and atmosphere can carry a whole street.
Aldgate Tap
A modern entry with a sense of place, Aldgate Tap sits in a striking pavilion by the station, part of the Tap family that started at Euston. The offer is straightforward – many lines, quick rotation, City-friendly hours – and the architecture makes it a landmark in a renewed square. Its Best Boozer nod shows the awards can embrace new fabric as well as old bones.
Old Dr Butler’s Head
Masons Avenue has poured pints on this site since the early 1600s, the pub named after William Butler, physician to James I and enthusiastic promoter of a purging ale. The present building dates from just after the Fire, and the alley setting keeps the City bustle at arm’s length. A Best Boozer nominee that binds medical folklore to pub tradition in one of the Square Mile’s oldest houses.