Six of the best... Pubs with a history

The French House, 49 Dean Street, W1 (020 7437 2799). The meeting place for the 'Lib?ration' movement in World War II (General De Gaulle ate in the restaurant upstairs). More recently, Lucian Freud popped in for a pastis and Kate Moss left in a huff after being told to turn off her mobile.

Magdala, 2A South Hill Park, NW3 (020 7435 2503). The place where, in 1955, Ruth Ellis put 10 rounds of lead into her ex-lover and earned the dubious honour of becoming Britain's last hanged woman. The bullet holes in the wall remain to this day. Not the place to dump your partner...
Magdala Tavern review

The Star Tavern, 6 Belgrave Mews West, SW1 (020 7235 3019). Popular with boozy high-society types and underworld crims during the Sixties. Christine Keeler worked here, Elizabeth Taylor drank here and Bruce Reynolds planned the Great Train Robbery in the upstairs drinking room. Allegedly.
Star Tavern review

Plumbers Arms,14 Lower Belgrave Street, SW1 (020 7730 4067). On 7 November 1974, a hysterical woman in a blood-spattered nightie entered the Plumber's Arms and announced that her husband had just murdered her nanny. Hubby Lord Lucan hasn't been seen drinking there since.
Plumbers Arms review

Hope and Anchor, 207 Upper Street, N1 (020 7354 1312). The pub that launched a thousand punk careers. Well, almost. The Sex Pistols, The Clash, and The Jam all played here pre-stardom, as did Madness, and U2 played their first London gig here.
Hope and Anchor review

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, 145 Fleet Street, EC4 (020 7353 6170). The Cheese's list of previous drinkers reads like Simon Schama's fantasy football team: Dr Johnson, Thackeray, Dickens, Yeats, Oliver Goldsmith and Mark Twain to name a few. And Walt Disney even sketched an early version of Donald Duck in the visitor's book.
Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese review