The Lamb

Dickens's local when he lived around the corner on Doughty Street between 1837 and 1839 — the house is now the Dickens Museum, a five-minute walk away. The Lamb dates from the 1720s and still has its original Victorian snob screens: etched glass panels on swivels at the bar that let you order without being seen by the rest of the room. They were popular in the 1890s and almost none survive. Ted Hughes used to drink here and arranged early meetings with Sylvia Plath at the pub. There's a working polyphon — a predecessor to the gramophone — that you can play for charity. Lamb's Conduit Street itself is one of the best stretches of independent shops in central London, worth arriving early for.