Pubs

The rooms worth crossing London for: the interiors CAMRA lists, the last galleried coaching inn, the pubs where something documented happened, and the ones that do one thing better than anyone. Filter by kind, or by what's open now.

Tell us what we can do better, or what you’re trying to discover.

Seven Stars

A 1602 building behind the Royal Courts, run as a lawyers' pub with a cat in a ruff.

Historic interior

Dated 1602 and probably older in origin, partly timber-framed under painted brick, with a jettied bay to the right that may once have been a separate house and a nineteenth-century pub front. Inside are two small ground-floor rooms with Victorian bar-backs and mirrors, a corner fireplace of about 1900, and thin beamed ceilings hiding the earlier frame.

It was the League of Seven Stars, for the seven Dutch provinces, and drew its early custom from Dutch sailors living nearby. Dickens is thought to have used it for the Magpie and Stump in Pickwick. It is also one of the pubs that claims to be London's oldest, which CAMRA records as a claim and so do we.

The Royal Courts of Justice are across the road, so the trade is barristers, and the walls are legal caricatures and old film posters. The snug on the left is the Wig Box. There is a resident cat who wears a ruff. The lavatories are up a staircase best described as vertical.

Where
51-54 Carey Street, WC2A 2JB
Nearest station
Chancery Lane · 5 min walk

More in Pubs

NearbyOther Categories

See more nearby listings

Submit a correction for this listing.

Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

Which area are you in?