The Blackfriar

The most extraordinary pub interior in London, and we're not being hyperbolic. Built in 1875 on the site of a Dominican friary, the ground-floor interior was redesigned around 1905 by architect H. Fuller-Clark and artist Henry Poole in an Arts and Crafts style that borders on the hallucinatory: marble walls, bronze reliefs of jolly friars, mosaic ceilings, and carved aphorisms like “Haste Is Slow” above the bar. In the 1960s it was nearly demolished for a road-widening scheme. John Betjeman led the campaign that saved it. CAMRA National Inventory. Stop rushing. Drink slowly. Look up.