City of London History – Ancient Pubs, Walking Guide, M&S

What if the secret to understanding a London neighborhood and its pubs… were the grocery stores?

In this episode of Publicity – The Guidebook Gap, Expat Andy takes us to the City of London - where historic pubs and modern finance meet. We reveal a travel planning superpower - The Publicity M&S Litmus Test. By learning to decode the type of Marks & Spencer nearby, we’ll know exactly what kind of neighborhood we're in - and what kind of pub experience to expect.

This isn’t about lists, or lectures. It’s about reading the city, and going beyond your guidebook.

We'll walk Fleet Street, duck into Leadenhall Market (pun intended), and sip stout in historic cellars. Most importantly, we’ll understand why certain pubs feel like neighborhood living rooms… and others... boardrooms with beer.

Transcript

PUBLICITY – The GUIDEBOOK GAP

EPISODE 6: City of London - What The Pubs & M&S Reveal

[VOICE - COLD OPEN]

You step off the Tube in an unfamiliar part of London with two hours to kill before dinner. Explore here, kill some time in a nice pub - or hop back on the train?  

Guidebooks lead you to “vibrant” areas with popular attractions, yet don’t say if they function as neighborhoods where people live.

For that you’ll need “The Publicity M&S Litmus Test”. It works in any British village, town, or city, telling you what kind of neighborhood you’re in, and what kind of pub experience you’ll get. It involves finding the nearest Marks and Spencer. Because you’re not just in any neighborhood, it’s a Marks & Spencer neighborhood.

I'm Expat Andy broadcasting from Miami in the sunshine state. This is Publicity - The Guidebook Gap. Where Guidebooks End, and Understanding Begins. Travel the way it could be.

[MUSIC – INTRO]

Chelsea, featured in Episode 1, has a full-size M&S department store on the King’s Road. Architects Journal reports the current building will be demolished and redeveloped. According to former MP Greg Hands, M&S confirmed they’re staying. Building Magazine notes the new development will include, 

“A replacement supermarket on its ground and basement floors”. 

This suggests M&S will convert this full-service store to a large foodhall. Grocery shopping. For people who live here. 

The City of London Corporation's 2024/25 report counts just 8,600 residents versus 678,000 daily workers. Compare that to The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea which has 147,500 residents - including around 41,400 in Chelsea alone.

That changes everything about the pubs in these neighborhoods.

[MUSIC – BUMPER 1]

ACT 1: THE DECODER KEY

M&S operates three store formats… 

[MUSIC – BUMPER 2]

TIER ONE: Full-Line Department Store

Multi-floor department stores with clothing, homeware, furniture, beauty, and a food hall. 80, 000 to around 133,000 square feet. 

M&S has been closing town center stores, consolidating, and relocating to cheaper retail parks. The town center stores that remain are in thriving, affluent areas such as Chelsea and Richmond - neighborhoods with stable residents, families, and dependable disposable income.

M&S is also opening new, flagship full service department stores in out of town locations.

TIER TWO: M&S Food Halls

A new focus for M&S. Big grocery stores, supermarket style. 10,000-21,500 square feet with car parks and wide aisles for families pushing trolleys. M&S wants 420 by 2026. These signal strong residential areas. Suburbs. Places with settled communities doing weekly shops.

TIER THREE: M&S Simply Food

The little ones. 2,000-10,000 square feet. Meal deals, sandwiches, grab-and-go salads. Train stations, airports, petrol stations, highway service stations, hospitals, and office districts. Designed for convenience, not weekly shopping. Highest rents, but excellent profit margins. Premium pricing that works because busy professionals aren't comparison shopping.

These tell you - transient population. Office workers. Commuters. Not residents, not families, not community.

[MUSIC – BUMPER 3]

I'm not speculating. I worked in a traditional High Street M&S department store. It was the anchor store that kept people coming to the town center in different times with different shopping patterns. It closed a few years ago. M&S opened bigger stores at retail parks - car parks and cheaper rent. High streets couldn't compete and they’ve never been the same.

Once you’ve seen this pattern a few times, it becomes impossible to unsee.

The economic reality is that many older buildings are simply too costly to retrofit for modern technology, air conditioning, and energy-efficiency standards. Contemporary customers want to park at stores closer to their homes, not take public transport into a town center.

[MUSIC – BUMPER 4]

Back in the City, I walked the two miles from Temple Station up to Fleet Street, to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese at 145 Fleet Street, EC4A 2BP, then up Ludgate Hill to St Paul’s Cathedral, and onto Fenchurch Street Station - right through the heart of the City. I counted the M&S locations as I walked: 

 ·       Two Tier 3 Simply Foods Rail Convenience stores at Cannon Street, and Fenchurch Street stations. Grab-and-go foods for commuters.

I widened my search to the entire historic City of London area and only found two additional M&S locations: 

·       One Tier 3 Simply Food Large Convenience Store at 15 Bishopsgate, EC2N 3NW. Signage says it’s a Food Hall but square footage and type of produce displays and grab and go packaging clearly signal a grab-and-go convenience store. 

·       One Tier 3 Simply Food - Large Convenience store at 323-324 High Holborn, WC1V 7PU.

Interesting to note a Tier One Full-line Department Store at Finsbury Pavement just outside the old City wall. M&S clearly being strategic - retaining a “food shop on the way out of the City” for office workers at the end of the day, while also serving the dense, affluent residential neighborhoods immediately beyond the Square Mile.

·       No Tier One Full-line Department Stores. 

·       No Tier Two Foodhalls. 

·       No Tier Three Franchise Petrol Station and Hospital Stores.

It's not just M&S. No supermarket brands - Sainsburys, Tesco, Waitrose.

[MUSIC – BUMPER 5]

OK then, M&S Man, what's this got to do with London travel and London pubs? Anyone like to picnic in London parks? Snack or microwave a frozen meal at your hotel when tired of eating at restaurants every night? I do! I choose my London hotel location based on proximity to an M&S Food store because of this.

Here's why all this matters for the pubs...

[MUSIC – BUMPER 6]

ACT 2: THE WORKING PUB

The Old Bank of England pub sits at 194 Fleet Street, EC4A 2LT. This was an actual Bank of England branch from 1888. A Grade II listed building, built to make you feel the weight of British finance. Architect Sir Arthur Blomfield designed it as the Law Courts branch in 1886 in grand Italianate style. Imposing neoclassical architecture, columns, the works. Vaults once stored gold bullion and the Crown Jewels.

The Bank moved out in 1975. Fullers turned it into a pub in 1994, preserving the original banking hall - soaring ceilings, ornate plasterwork, chandeliers, dark wood paneling. It’s the kind of place where you instinctively lower your voice.

McMullens  has run it since 2019, part of their 130-pub portfolio. Good food (try the pies), well-kept ales, and a regular on every “historic London pubs” list.

For good reason - it’s stunning; but here’s what the guidebooks don’t tell you.

I was there mid-afternoon. Late Tuesday lunchtime. That time of day when the space feels more like a fine Italian café than pub. Not packed, but decent crowd. 

I ordered a pie and a pint and found a table near the back close to the vault entrance. I'm sitting there taking in the architecture, when the table next to me gets new arrivals.

Three men. Early to mid-40s. Suits without jackets - that Business Casual City look. Expensive shirts, good watches, the polish that comes with money and handling other people's money.

They order, settle in, and start talking. Not about football, the much-maligned Northern Line, or asking about weekends, kids, or the latest club. They're discussing crop reports - and nobody finds this strange.

The bartender doesn't blink. The other tables are similar - I start paying attention now - hushed business conversations, possible contract negotiations.

The pub isn't where they escape work. It's where they do work.

[MUSIC – BUMPER 7]

Remember The Cross Keys in Chelsea, Episode 1? When developers wanted to convert to luxury flats, the community saved it. When you enter The Cross Keys today, you’ll see people reading, chatting with neighbors, meeting friends, and shoppers having a refreshment break. A relaxing third space that’s neither work nor home - the neighborhood’s living room.   

The Old Bank of England? With no homes nearby, the pub serves as office worker conference room, and dining room for weary tourists. A great use of this stunning building.

Social planning experts like John Grindrod, author of Concretopia, have traced Britain’s shifting urban patterns: Victorian-era Industrial age densification, post-war suburban flight, and a return to city living as gentrification took hold. The City of London bucks that trend. It hasn’t drawn residents back - it’s gone in the other direction. 

It’s a fascinating mix - office life juxtaposed with top tourist spots. You can see it in the pub’s clientele, and somehow, it works. Don’t believe me? Book a table (it gets busy), order a pie and a pint, and observe the room. It’s no coincidence that writers love to sit in public spaces harvesting public life for future book ideas!

[MUSIC – BUMPER 8]

Let’s hop over to Leadenhall Market, Gracechurch Street, EC3V 1LT. The market sits in the historic heart of Roman Londinium, where Roman roads like Bishopsgate and Leadenhall Street follow ancient routes and the forum and basilica once stood beneath today’s cobblestones and arches - parts of which were uncovered in archaeological excavations and remain preserved below modern buildings.

The Romans arrived in Britain in 43 AD, settling in what is now London. To many Romans, Britannia was remote, primitive, and mysterious. Historian Cassius Dio got straight to the point, 

“They dwell in tents, naked and without shoes.”

Not exactly a jolly of a business trip to be a Roman soldier on assignment to Britain. 

The Romans endured, and in 70AD we got a forum on the site of today’s Leadenhall Market.

The name Leadenhall likely comes from the lead-roofed mansion built by Sir Hugh Neville around 1296. By the early 14th century, the site had become a trading hub - meat and fish were sold on the site from around 1321, with cheesemongers appearing in 1397. 

The estate passed to the City of London in 1408, thanks to Lord Mayor Richard “Dick” Whittington. After a fire destroyed the original hall in 1484, it was replaced with full market facilities. It became a rough, raucous place - selling hides, meat, poultry, and game. It was the first area in London to sell cutlery, and one of the earliest where women could work.

The market survived The Great Fire of 1666. Despite being restructured into separate trading sections, the Financial District grew increasingly snooty at the prospect of rough and tumble butchers and meat trading on its doorstep. The City Corporation secured Parliamentary powers to abandon the hide and meat markets, shifting them to the newly constructed Smithfield Market. 

In 1881, architect Sir Horace Jones was hired to design,

“A respectable arcade for the poultry market”.

Jones redesigned the market with a brightly painted Victorian wrought iron and glass arcade over cobbled lanes, inspired by Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. This Grade II–listed gem still stands today, a dramatic contrast to the sleek modern offices around it.

You might recognize it as Diagon Alley in Harry Potter. It’s easy to see why - historic atmosphere, glowing ironwork, cobble stones, cozy pubs - it should feel magical.

[MUSIC – BUMPER 9]

If you’ve already visited Leadenhall Market, you know where I’m heading with this story! The pub. Specifically one named after a goose running wild and free at Leadenhall Market - Old Tom's Bar and it’s daddy The Lamb Tavern at 10-12 Leadenhall Market, EC3V 1LR.

Street level you’ll see the traditional Victorian pub frontage of The Lamb Tavern - hanging flower baskets, real ales advertised on chalkboards outside. I’ve got some really fun stories about The Lamb Tavern on The Watchmakers Circle section of our website, so for now, let’s leave the crush of Finance Bros, step to the side, through the  door and down the steep curving steps down to Old Tom's Bar. Experience one of my favorite places in the City to take the weight off and rest. Why would you ever do a shopping mall food court or a fast food join when you have this?

On my last visit to Leadenhall Market, I ducked in (no pun intended) out of the rain during a mid-week lunchtime rush. As usual, The Lamb Tavern was absolutely rammed! Pun definitely intended! The crowd spills out onto the cobblestones running through the market. The noise level is intense - conversations competing, glasses clinking. A standup crowd. Literally. How they can go back to crunching financials after a strong ale, I don't know.

I leave the crowd and descend to the quiet calm of the Old Tom's Bar cellars. I ordered a pint of Young's Winter Warmer - a delicious champion cask ale that The London Economic website calls, 

"The Beaujolais Nouveau of Beer" 

and served in a lovely old style dimpled beer mug with a beautiful stained glass style graphic of a lamb on it. I find a quiet corner to study my London map and sit. 

Soon, two guys enter my quiet cellar alcove room. Early to mid-30s in age. Standard City uniform – casual, no ties but expensive shirts and coats.  They're sitting close enough that I can't help but overhear. One says something like this, 

"So where are you on your Q4 quota? I'm at 87% but I need two more this week or I'm in trouble..."

Sales targets. At the pub. At lunch. In a market location of some 800 years and a building that Victorian traders used, standing where medieval market stalls once operated.

And he's got his phone out, showing his colleague something that I imagine to be the pipeline spreadsheet. 

By now, you know exactly what you’re watching. Sit and experience authentic City culture – how London's financial industry operates. Over a pint of beer at lunchtime. 

[MUSIC – BUMPER 10]

ACT 3: THE HISTORIC MONUMENT

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese located at 145 Fleet Street, EC4A 2BP. Possibly London’s most famous historic pub - though you might’ve missed it, tucked down an alley off Fleet Street.

The name might sound a bit Disney, but it’s rooted in real history. “Ye” comes from old printing conventions - typesetters used "Y" to represent the Old English letter Thorn, which stood for "TH." The original name was The Old Cheshire Cheese, with “Olde” likely added later for atmosphere.

A Grade II listed building, rebuilt in 1667 after an earlier pub was destroyed during the Great Fire of 1666. Parts survived the fire; they incorporated what remained. The cellars may be even older, possibly from a 13th-century Carmelite monastery once on the site.

Samuel Johnson likely drank here while compiling his Dictionary in the 1750s at his  nearby house - 17 Gough Square. Check out the statue of his cat Hodge outside. Charles Dickens was a regular in the 1830s and 40s while living and working nearby. Fleet Street pubs feature throughout his novels, including A Tale of Two Cities.

Again, I’ve got some really fun stories about Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese on The Watchmakers Circle section of our website.

In the mid-1800s through the 1980s, Fleet Street was London's newspaper district. The Times, Telegraph, Daily Express, Daily Mail, Observer - all headquartered here. Reuters building. Press Association. The iconic art-deco Daily Express building still stands at 121-8 Fleet Street. After print deadline, journalists poured into Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. Journalists, editors, foreign correspondents. All drinking together, trading stories, networking. Britain's most important journalism discussed in these rooms.

From 1980 into the ‘90s, the newspapers left. The Times to Wapping in 1986. Telegraph to Docklands. Daily Express to Blackfriars. One by one - cheaper rent, modern facilities, better technology, more space. Rupert Murdoch's Times move to Wapping broke the print unions and changed British journalism forever. Emptied Fleet Street.

The journalists disappeared. The deadline energy - gone. The community that made this pub famous moved to east London.

Fleet Street stopped being "Fleet Street."

But Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese survived.

Because it's Grade II listed. Protected building status. Can't be demolished. Can't be converted without extraordinary permission that'll never be granted.

And because it's owned by Samuel Smith's Brewery.

[MUSIC – BUMPER 11]

If you’re unfamiliar with Samuel Smith’s, they’re a heritage brewery from Tadcaster, North Yorkshire. 

Founded in 1758, and Yorkshire’s oldest brewery. They still brew using traditional methods. Remarkably, they still deliver beer in Tadcaster by horse-drawn dray, with real dapple-grey Shire horses pulling carts through town in the 21st century.

Samuel Smith’s own a number of historic pubs, mostly in London and the North. And they’re infamous for their strict rules:

 ·       No phones, tablets, or laptops. Not “keep them silent” but don’t use them at all. Don’t even whip your mobile out and excitedly take a photo for your socials. Staff will ask you to put them away. Refuse, and you’ll be invited to leave.

·       No music. No TVs. No gaming machines. Just conversation. Like pubs before screens and speakerphone shouting took over public life. 

The Samuel Smiths policy is divisive. Some love it - a digital detox that forces real human interaction. Others find it stifling, even performatively traditional. Me? Well, let’s just say, I wish Samuel Smiths would take over management of my Miami gym! 

Samuel Smith’s isn’t just preserving old pubs. They’re actively enforcing a vision of what traditional pub culture could be. 

When you visit Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese today, you’re getting two layers of history. The building shows you Samuel Johnson’s London - dark wood, worn stairs, and low ceilings. The Samuel Smith rules? They show you Samuel Smith’s London—a curated, intentional throwback. Make your mind up on Samuel Smiths rules, just don't let them stop you from visiting and enjoying their fine ales, supporting pub businesses, and experiencing living heritage.

Visit on a weekday lunchtime and it’s everything you imagine a historic London pub would be. It’ll be packed. City workers grabbing lunch, tourists trying to sneak photos (I won’t tell), travelers ticking it off their bucket list. Best experienced on a cold day when the fireplaces are cranking. Fleet Street’s modern bustle fades the moment you step inside. Dim lighting, creaky floors, fireplaces, staircases winding between levels of maze-like rooms, and wooden furniture worn smooth by centuries of elbows.

Yes, the no-phone policy changes the vibe. People… are actually talking. You hear voices, not sports scores or muzak yelling from TV sets. It feels… authentic. Like a 19th-century Fleet Street pub - minus the cigarette smoke and print deadlines.

Go on a Saturday and it might be closed. Or nearly empty with that famous cellar bar shut. Why? The weekday crowd’s gone. City workers are home in the suburbs, journalists are history, and the tourist trade – feast or famine. 

Still worth visiting. Just check the hours first.

[MUSIC – BUMPER 12]

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese survived the newspapers leaving. Survived because it's protected by law, owned by a brewery committed to preservation, in a wealthy area generating tourist traffic.

What’s been saved? The structure, the architecture with rules designed to recreate a traditional atmosphere. Not the journalists neither the community or organic social culture that made the place legendary.

Maybe preserving the form - building, atmosphere, enforced social space – maybe that’s better than nothing. 

When The Cross Keys reopened in Chelsea, it reopened for someone. For the community that saved it. For people whose daily life includes that pub.

When Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese opens Monday morning, it opens for tourists, for City workers on lunch break, for people experiencing curated tradition.

Different thing entirely.

When it comes to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese- I like it! Thank you, Samuel Smith's for your great stewardship of this historic treasure and expert management of a thriving modern business in an antique Grade II listed building.

[MUSIC – BUMPER 13]

ACT 4: WHAT THIS MEANS FOR VISITORS

Here's what you need to know if you're visiting the City.

First, absolutely - go!  

Nowhere else can you visit, drink where Samuel Johnson compiled his Dictionary, stand where Dickens raised a glass, or see the spot where the Great Fire of 1666 was stopped. The plaques are still there. You’ll walk streets that follow the exact layout of Roman Londinium and find pub basements built into Roman wall foundations.

The City is more than a global financial center – it’s London’s origin point - where it all began, 2,000 years ago.

But plan your visit carefully, for it surely depends on the type of experience you’ll get versus the type you actually want.

[MUSIC – BUMPER 14]

Weekday Lunchtimes (Noon–2 PM): When the City Comes Alive

This is the City at full tilt. Pubs fill with ‘suits’—more metaphor than dress code these days - the air hums with talk of deals, markets, and meetings. It’s intense, focused, and fascinating. If you want to see how the Square Mile actually operates, this is your moment.

You might assume finance moved entirely to Canary Wharf, the way journalism left Fleet Street. But walk through the City at lunchtime, and you’ll see otherwise. The crowds—and the thriving pubs—tell a different story.

Downside? Crowds. Tables are scarce. And it’s pricey—£7–8 per pint, compared to £5–6 elsewhere. You’re up against regulars who know  what they want and only an hour to get it. This is work culture with beer. Still a form of community - just one shaped by quotas and spreadsheets.

My recommendation? Do it. Pick a pub like The Old Bank of England for atmosphere and space. Or one in Leadenhall Market, right next to Lloyd’s of London - Richard Rogers’s bold ‘Bowellist’ masterpiece. Go on a Tuesday or Wednesday around 1 PM. Order a pint, find a corner if you can, and observe. It’s educational. It’s fascinating.

Just know what you’re seeing - finance culture on display, not neighborhood life. Unless, of course, you count this as a neighborhood in its own, very particular way.

[MUSIC – BUMPER 15]

Weekday Evenings (5–7 PM): The After-Work Crowd

City workers unwinding - metaphorical ties loosened, maybe even literal ones.

The vibe is more relaxed than at lunch. Conversations still drift into work, but the intensity fades.

Later in the evening is ideal for talking to the bartenders. Ask about the pub’s history. Hear stories. They’ve got time now—no lunch rush. It’s also when you start noticing the details: like the bartender - he's wearing nail polish, serving a room full of suits. Now that’s a backstory worth chasing.

Wednesday evenings offer a better shot at a table. Prices are still City-level, but if you want to visit City pubs and have real conversations, this is your window.

 [MUSIC – BUMPER 16]

 Weekends

 Some City pubs don’t even open—no customers, no point. The ones that do - Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese usually is, The Old Bank of England  sometimes - are eerily quiet.

You might find a few tourists; some history buffs; maybe nobody.

That’s the beauty of it - You get the place to yourself. Time to explore. Admire the architecture, study Victorian tilework, spot original fixtures and carved wood, read the plaques without being jostled. You can even take photos without fifty people in the frame. 

It’s the best time to pick the bartender’s brain. They have plenty of time and are likely bored. They’ll tell you everything your guidebook won’t. 

Do a Saturday morning walk in the City. Start at Temple Station, stroll Fleet Street to Leadenhall Market. Enjoy the strange, unsettling emptiness of streets packed Monday to Friday now deserted. There are still hotels with guest needs. Some businesses remain open. Just call ahead.

Pop over to Chelsea and feel why Chelsea residents fought to save their pubs. Chelsea has locals on Saturdays. Weekend life. A community seven days a week.

Enjoy both neighborhoods for what you can now predict them to be ahead of your visit.

[MUSIC – BUMPER 17]

ACT 5: YOUR SUPERPOWER

Find the Marks and Spencer - your instant decoder.

·       Full department store? You’re in a wealthy, residential area. Expect pubs with locals, conversation, and community.

·       Large food hall? Stable, suburban neighborhood. Pubs serving regulars doing their weekly shop.

·       Simply Food only? Business district or tourist zone. Pubs packed at lunch, empty on weekends.

·       No M&S at all?  Now there's an horrific prospect! Either a hyper local small neighborhood, or one in decline. Pubs will reflect whatever community is left.

That’s your Publicity Superpower - understanding the logic by predicting the neighborhood and its pub culture from its grocery stores, not relying on guidebooks.

While your friends stumble into random pubs hoping they’re good, you’ll know exactly what you’re walking into.

That’s the Publicity M&S Litmus Test. A quick, reliable neighborhood decoder. It works in any British neighborhood.

[MUSIC – BUMPER 18]

I'm Expat Andy. You’ve been listening to Publicity - The Guidebook Gap. Where Guidebooks End, and Understanding Begins. Travel the way it could be.

Find us at publicitythepodcast.com for maps, photos, everything you need to explore these neighborhoods yourself, and extra content in our Watchmakers Circle.

See you in the next episode. Remember, every pub, every neighborhood has a story, if you know where to look…

You just need the right travel tools.

[MUSIC – OUTRO]