London’s best pubs with rooms

‘Pub with rooms’ used to mean ‘backpackers’ hostel’, the sort of place with three bunk beds to a dorm and a pound deposit on your towel. But recently the capital’s pubs have realised that by raising their game, they could steal a decent chunk of the London hotel market. In a city where £400 a night often buys you nothing more than a fake mahogany desk, pubs are now offering boutique rooms at Travelodge prices. And apart from the value they offer, what could be more exciting than staying above a pub? It’s a return to the days of the coaching inn, somewhere you could eat and drink with an interesting collection of strangers, then spend the night before continuing your journey. The only difference is that whereas the coaching inn gave you a fresh team of horses, the pub lets you charge your iPhone.

So if you fancy a venue with more character than a bland hotel, here are London’s best pubs with rooms …

The Counting House

This Fuller’s pub (which still boasts the safe and deposit boxes from its days as Prescott’s Bank) has taken over the City University Club’s premises upstairs and turned them into seriously impressive rooms, all named after coins (Guinea, Sovereign, Florin …).