This well loved pub in a residential street just off Borough High Street is the only one in London tied to Lewes brewery Harvey’s. It’s also one of the closest-to-perfect traditional pubs in the capital.

The Venue
Today Tabard Street, only a short walk from Borough Tube, may feel tucked away but it was once the alignment of Roman Watling Street, the road to Canterbury taken by Chaucer’s pilgrims. The Royal Oak is in a classic Victorian corner pub building with big windows, glazed tiling and multiple doors set with etched glass, and inside a few fragments remain of its original architecture. It retains two separate drinking areas around an island bar with a heavy wooden bar back – a more basic public bar at the front and a saloon bar with more soft furnishings at the rear. Between them to the left is a lobby with a hatch once used for takeaway sales. Well-appointed function rooms are available upstairs, and the pride the owners take in the place just shines through. Recently introduced weekend opening has extended the pleasure.

The Atmosphere
One of those rare pubs where the murmur of quiet conversation replaces recorded music and bleeping machines, the Royal Oak retains a warm and welcoming community feel, though the community comes from far and wide as well as the local housing. Not that it takes a great effort to find, but it’s sufficiently off the main drag to ensure most of the customers have deliberately set out to enjoy its particular charms, resulting in a mixed crowd of people that share the appreciation of traditional pubs and great beer.

The Food
Home cooked food in generous helpings ranges from sandwiches through old-fashioned stuff like rabbit pie and hotpots to veggie options and roast dinners at keen prices.

The Drink
Classic dry English cask bitter Harvey’s Sussex Best is now relatively common in London but you’ll struggle to find a better pint of it than at the Royal Oak, where it shares the stage with a wide range of other beers from the same brewer rarely seen outside their East Sussex heartland. Six beer pumps are likely to dispense a splendid dark mild, seasonal beers and the occasional guest. Another pump is set aside for real cider. A big range of Harvey’s bottled beers includes heritage treasures like Christmas Ale, Elizabethan Ale and the benchmark Imperial Russian Stout. European classic styles, mainly French, make up the small roster of wines.

The Last Word
Even if the beer doesn’t attract you, visit to find out what the best kind of unspoilt English pub should feel like.

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