Lamb & Flag

While most of its WC2 peers have gone down the tapas and bottled beers route, the 300-year-old Lamb & Flag has belligerently stuck to what it does best. The interiors –19th-century prints, wooden floors, wobbly tables – have resisted reinvention, and its clientele, a mixed crowd of locals, office workers and overseas visitors who come for good beer in convivial surroundings, adore it for its authenticity – as did former regular Charles Dickens. Smokers will love the cobbled forecourt.