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Warm amber light inside a historic English pub

The British bar guide

England's best pubs, bars, and places worth drinking in.

Honest reviews, city guides, and the stories behind the glass.

Explore by city Read the guides

Where to drink

Six cities, properly covered.

The timber-framed buildings of Bishops Stortford town centre on a clear autumn morning
Hertfordshire

Bishops Stortford

3 picks - Explore -
The River Cam at dusk with punts moored and pub lights reflected in the water
Cambridgeshire

Cambridge

3 picks - Explore -
Chelmsford's Tindal Square at twilight, warm lights from bars spilling onto the stone
Essex

Chelmsford

3 picks - Explore -
Hertford's Bull Plain with the castle walls in the background and a pub frontage in the foreground
Hertfordshire

Hertford

3 picks - Explore -
Marlow suspension bridge over the Thames at golden hour, a pub terrace visible in soft focus
Buckinghamshire

Marlow

3 picks - Explore -
The Thames at Staines at dusk, a riverside pub terrace lit in amber with the old bridge visible
Surrey

Staines

3 picks - Explore -

Editor's picks

The places we keep going back to.

The Beehive's traditional pub frontage on Windhill with hanging baskets and a painted sign
Our pick
Pub - Bishops Stortford ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The Beehive

Bishops Stortford's most dependable pub - a proper cask-ale house that has resisted improvement for all the right reasons.

Read review -
The Eagle's cobbled courtyard with timber beams and hanging baskets in afternoon light
Our pick
Pub - Cambridge ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The Eagle

The most visited pub in Cambridge, and one of the few cases in England where the reputation is not the problem - the reality is the point.

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The Laboratory's tap wall with a dozen craft keg handles and illuminated menu boards
Our pick
Craft beer - Chelmsford ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The Laboratory

The craft beer bar that proved Chelmsford was a serious drinking city before the city knew it was.

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The Hand and Flowers frontage on West Street, a low whitewashed pub with small-paned windows
Our pick
Gastropub - Marlow ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The Hand and Flowers

The most famous pub in England: two Michelin stars in a building that still looks, from the outside, like a pub.

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"A good English pub is not a place you visit. It is a place you return to."

The Baroosh guide

Reading matter

Guides worth your time.

A quiet pub garden on a Sunday afternoon in early spring, dappled light through oak trees
Sunday pubs

Where to drink on a Sunday afternoon in England

Sunday afternoon drinking in England is its own category - not evening drinking, not post-match drinking, but the specific pleasure of a Sunday afternoon stretched unhurriedly into evening.

12 April 2026
A row of craft beer keg taps in a modern taproom, lit by industrial pendant lights
Craft beer

Craft beer in English market towns

Craft beer in English market towns is not what craft beer was in London in 2012. It is something calmer, more integrated, and in many ways more interesting.

8 April 2026
A traditional English pub bar counter with handpumps and a row of glasses
Guides

A visitor's guide to English pub etiquette

English pub etiquette is not complicated, but it is specific, and knowing it makes the difference between a pleasant evening and an obviously foreign one.

5 April 2026
A gastropub dining room with wooden tables set for lunch, a chalk specials board visible on the wall
Gastropubs

The quiet rise of the English gastropub

The gastropub was first a rescue operation and later a revolution, and the argument about whether it improved or corrupted the English pub is not yet settled.

29 March 2026

Drinks notes, direct.

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