The Wenlock Arms

Shoreditch / Brick Lane, London –

Where other pubs try to recreate the look and vibe of a nineteenth-century neighborhood watering hole, The Wenlock Arms is the real deal, a nearly two-hundred-year-old public house where visitors can savor award-winning cask ales alongside a colorful cast of regulars.

Located in the artsy but unpretentious borough of Shoreditch, this dark, single-room beer paradise is lined with commemorative pint bottles and high-top tables where blue-collar fishermen and struggling art students settle in to swig Kelham Island Gate Crashers and O’Hanlon Dry Stouts.

Young couples and after-hours officemates head straight to the booths, but the real action takes place at the carved mahogany bar – a keepsake from The Wenlock’s 1836 opening – where familiar tapsters pour generous glasses of small-production brews and yuck it up with a gregarious crowd of local revelers who are always up for a stiff drink or a bawdy joke.

Although the constantly-changing beer menu is an obvious draw, the bar also serves up some good-natured fun, including Quiz Night on Thursdays when larger-than-life Eddie “The Fat Controller” Todd tests drinkers’ knowledge for free pitchers and cash prizes, as well as live jazz and blues on Fridays and Saturdays.

Patrons with pooches are also welcome, with some furry friends becoming pub regulars, subsisting on table scraps from the gruff sweater-clad graybeards who call the place home.

Having survived wartime bombing and many planned closures, The Wenlock Arms has become more than just a brewhouse – for its devotees, it’s a welcoming community.