Drink in a Grade II listed Sam Smiths pub

The Princess Louise, a short walk from Holborn Tube Station is a Grade II building and is owned by the Samuel Smiths brewery of Tadcaster in Yorkshire. The pub was built in 1872 and is named after Queen Victoria's fourth daughter, Princess Louise.


The pub has a fantastic interior dating from the 19th Century with tiling by W.B. Simpson, a celebrated tile decorating company formed in the late 1840s at Clapham, and still in existence today in Surrey.

Nowadays, it is entirely owned by the Samuel Smith Brewery of Tadcaster in Yorkshire and, like all Sam Smiths pubs, only stocks drinks made by or for the brewery, which carry their labeling. It's also very cheap with a pint of Old Brewery Bitter still costing less than £2 at the last check.

The Princess Louise was recently refurbished and booths were installed around the bar. However, all the work was done by skilled craftsmen to original plans and consequently the pub retained its listing in the Campaign for Real Ale's national inventory of historic pub interiors.

And if you like the Sam Smiths experience you can try an estimated 40 others in London, but you'll have to find them yourself as the brewery is publicity-shy and doesn't have a website.

For more information on the pub, visit its page on the fancyapint website at http://www.fancyapint.com/pubs/pub482.html.

Click here to view the location on a map.

^{^Picture from flickr courtesy of lode^}