This Farringdon bar has the sort of look many pubs invest a lot of time, effort and money into imitating, but the Jerusalem looks the perfect part. The wooden floor is scuffed, paint is peeling all over the shop and the knackered tables are heavy with what looks like centuries-worth of spilled pints.
But although the rooms inside date from the eighteenth century, it has only been a pub since 1990. Maybe it’s because of this that it acknowledges the odd modern trend – poshed-up bar snacks, taxidermy cabinets – and the beer is anything but outdated, with premium-strength IPAs and whisky-accented ale (all of it from St Peter’s Brewery in Suffolk).
If you like what you taste, you can pick up a five-litre mini-keg of the pub’s most popular brews to take home. Seating is extremely limited and you’ll need luck on your side to bag the coveted spot by the open fire, but the side-street setting means you won’t be herded into a roped-off pen when the crowd inevitable breaches the precincts and spreads on to the pavement.