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Every year we give our list of the top 50 pubs in London a proper refresh, bringing a host of new boozers into the mix as well as crowning a brand-spanking new number one.
This year, our list topper ends 12 months of south London domination from The Old Nun’s Head (which we still love). Time Out’s Pub of the Year 2026 is a north-of-the-river classic.
We raise our glasses to new number one The Shakespeare’s Head, a Clerkenwell crowd pleaser that still feels like a hidden secret. Tucked away behind Sadler’s Wells Theatre near Angel station, this flat-roofed pub on Arlington Way dates back to the Victorian era, but was rebuilt in the 1960s. In spite of how it may look from the outside, this ‘salt-of-the-earth local extends a warm welcome to all,’ said Time Out editor Joe Mackertich.
‘It’s hard to imagine a pub with fewer pretensions than this place, done out in gloss-painted wood, standard-issue pub carpets and plump seating,’ reads our review. ‘This old-school boozer is made notable by the people in it: the staff, for whom nothing is too much trouble; and the clientele, an easygoing mix of theatregoers (Sadler’s Wells is steps away) and talkative locals who’ve been drinking here since their dads brought them in for a pint on their 18th birthday’.
Other new entries include Moylett’s in Clapton - which is the highest ranking new pub on the list - as well as The Dacre Arms in Lewisham, Paddington’s Royal Exchange and The Nag’s Head in Walthamstow.
Time Out’s 2025 pub of the year was the previously mentioned Old Nun’s Head. In 2024 Newington Green’s Army & Navy was the capital’s best pub, and in 2023 Skehans in Nunhead held the title.
🍻 Read Time Out’s full guide to London’s best pubs for 2026 here.
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