London Pubs and Pub Signs

Even a short walk around London will take you past a number of Pub Signs. Pubs are to Londoners as krill are to whales. The streets of London, as well as the back alleys, a filled with Pubs. A real pub, as in a historic pub that a touristy type such as myself my like, looks like a set from a Sherlock Holmes movie. I like the signs, and I took many photos of Pub Signs when last I was in the city of London.

But the signs are really a side issue, it's all about the food and drink and the company one finds in a good pub-not to mention the size of the telly. Or so I hear. I like to look at Pubs more than I like to use them. Which is why a guide to London Pubs is always a welcome thing. There are a lot of guides to London Pubs, but only a handful that really seem to cover the topic well. I have picked five websites that talk seriously about proper London Pubs.

Pubs.Com is a very pretty and very functional site that about all things Pubs. Recent stories talk about Pub Etiquette, how to get around in London, and the fact that beer prices or on the rise. Traditional and Historical Pubs are the focus here. They have a nice little Pub Finder that lets your search by location, postcode, name, or landmark-with a lot of choices in what the Pub you are seeking has to offer. A quick search for London Pubs brings up 68 Traditional and Historic Pubs. The site also feature Pub History, The Law, and other Pub Related Topics.

London View-London Pub and Bar Guide is a bit more modern in their view of the Pub. They have 205 London Pubs listed on their site. London View also has a nice Pub Finder which has drop-down menus to help you narrow your search to parts of the city and tube stations. The latest London bar news here is about Prince Arthur and Amora Aphrodisiac Lounge, great names at any rate, and I bet they have good Pub Signs as well.

TimeOut London Bars, Pubs, and Clubs has a nice clean look to it. It's Pub Search says it lists over a thousand bars and pubs. They have a place to sign up for a newsletter if you can't wait to find out which Pub they are reviewing next. The reviews seem to be quick and to the point, which is what you want in a Pub review. The Features are a bit more in depth than the reviews. This is a good site to while away a few minutes, or more, deciding where you want to start that Pub Crawl.

Random Pub Finder is for those times when you don't want to while away the odd hour looking at the web, you want to go to a Pub. So hit the Pub Randomizer and whamo, you are given a Pub to go to. There is also a map of London with a ton of red dots that represent the Pubs, a Tag Cloud of Pubs, and the Full List of Pubs. One of the cute items here that I have not noticed on the other sites is a list of Top Ten Worst Pubs in London. Just as good to the bad ones as it is to know the good ones. This is a simple and easy site to use. Need a London Pub? Point and click.

Fancyapint? is another nice little site with a more friendly feel to it than the larger sites above. Fancyapint offers Pub reviews, Top Ten Pub lists, and a visitor's guide to the UK. Seems they wrote a book but it is sold out. They should have whipped out an ebook, those things never go out of print. They also have a list of Pub Walks and Pub Crawls. The Pub reviews features details about the Pub in question, such as the size of the TVs, whether they have a beer garden, and how to get there. Pubs are rated in beers-0 to 5 with 5 being the best. There are plenty of 5 beer Pubs to choose from.