Some British pubs can count themselves as being amongst the oldest surviving buildings in the country. In fact, when I last lived in London, local history related that there had been a hostelry of one form or another on the site of my local pub, (right), since at least Saxon times. Perhaps this is why you can sometimes find benchmarks (surveyors reference marks) on old pubs. This is based on the principle, I suppose, that the local pub is the building most likely to still be around in the future . . .

I like British pubs. It's not just their function as purveyors of refreshment, but also that, despite the fact that they vary widely in size, shape, location etc. they nearly all seem to share some undefinable characteristic that makes them unique amongst the worlds watering holes. I have been in many 'British' pubs in other countries but, despite them selling British beer, or being run by ex-pats etc. they all, in my opinion, lack that 1% of 'je ne sais quoi' that prevents them from 'feeling' genuine.

Given this, plus the fact that I enjoy photography as a hobby, it's not surprising that I have one or two (!) snapshots of British pubs amongst my photo collection. However, I did once go a bit overboard on the subject . . . I once spent a summer photographing London pubs. No, not all of them, but those contained in a self imposed area around the centre of the city.

I don't recall why I suddenly got this urge, but for several months I spent all of my free time wandering around the streets of London, city map in one hand and camera in the other, ticking off the streets, squares and alleys one by one as I passed through them. When I saw a pub I took a photo of it.

I suppose the actual traipsing around and photo taking was a bit boring, but the 'pit stops' along the way were quite enjoyable . . .

In my chosen area I counted over 250 pubs. Like many of my photos the originals are slides (transparencies) and, since I lack a slide scanner, posting all these images on this site is a non starter.

However, twenty years later, digital camera in hand, I started to repeat the exercise covering a slightly wider area than previously and the resulting images - 339 of them - can be seen HERE.

This covers an area of London bounded by Portland Place / Regent Street to the West, Euston Road to the North, King's Cross Road / Farrington Road to the East and The Thames to the South.