The Golden Lion, 25 King Street, SW1.
Given that so many pubs claim to have served her, actress/model Nell Gwynne must have been what ye olde News Of Ye Worlde might have called a binge-drinking hen. Nowadays, she’d no doubt tank up on Timothy Taylor’s Landlord or London Pride with Gordon’s gin chasers at this long-standing bow-fronted tavern. Its current incarnation dates from 1900, but punters have been drinking here since 1762: Napoleon III did, as did luvvie lushes Lillie Langtry and Oscar Wilde in the Theatre Bar, named after the next-door St James’s Theatre demolished in 1957. The drama continues, however, as a ghost of a barmaid murdered by a former landlady reputedly stalks The Golden Lion’s staircase.(c)
