The Jerusalem Tavern and the Pubs of Clerkenwell

Published 28 September 2026 · By the Guide to London editorial team · Editor: Terje Moy

The pub at 55 Britton Street that everybody knows as the Jerusalem Tavern now trades under a different name: it is The Holy Tavern, and its published hours are noon to 11pm Monday to Saturday and noon to 9.30pm on Sunday. It is one small room with a handful of tables, and on a weekday it is full by about half past five.

Clerkenwell has more good pubs per street than almost anywhere else in London, partly because the distilling and brewing trades were here and partly because Smithfield market kept early hours next door. Our Clerkenwell neighbourhood guide covers the area itself, and our page on historic pubs covers the city-wide survivors. This page is about the drinking: the Britton Street pub and its name change, and then eleven others within fifteen minutes, with what the statutory record says about the buildings and what the regulator says about the kitchens.

The name has changed, and so has the beer

For nearly thirty years this was the London outlet of St Peter's Brewery, a Suffolk brewery based at St Peter's Hall near Bungay, and the whole point of the pub was that you drank Suffolk beer from odd-shaped bottles in a room that looked like a Georgian shop. That arrangement has ended. The Food Standards Agency register lists the business at 55 Britton Street as The Holy Tavern, and St Peter's Brewery no longer lists a London pub anywhere on its own site.

The Holy Tavern's own pages describe a relaunch of the same premises, with doors opening on 14 August 2026, and give the hours above. If you have come to Clerkenwell specifically for St Peter's beers, that is no longer where to find them, and our guide to craft beer and brewery taprooms is the better starting point. If you have come for the room, the room is intact and it is the reason to go.

The shopfront, which is the listed part

Historic England's entry is worth reading before you go in, because it explains what you are looking at. The building is listed grade II and described as a terraced house with a shop, dating from about 1825 - not as a pub. The interior is a converted shop, not a bar that has been pouring beer since the Georgians.

The front is multicoloured brick laid in Flemish bond, with the second floor rebuilt in yellow brick and a Welsh slate roof above. It is four storeys and two windows wide. On the left of the ground floor is a round-arched opening leading into St John's Path, the alley that runs through to Jerusalem Passage; the rest of the frontage is taken up by what the listing calls a well-preserved early nineteenth-century wooden shop front, with engaged Roman Doric columns carrying an entablature with a fascia, end scrolls and a cornice. The central door has a decoratively glazed overlight and the shop windows are small-paned with curved corners.

Above, the first-floor windows sit recessed inside round-arched brick panels linked by stone springing bands, and the upper floors keep six-over-six sashes of the original pattern. There are two dormers in a mansard roof behind the parapet. The entry cites Dan Cruickshank and Peter Wyld's The Art of Georgian Building for the shopfront, which is a measure of how good it is.

Eleven more pubs, and which are actually open when you want them

These are within fifteen minutes on foot, and every one has been checked on the public hygiene register. Ratings and inspection dates were as we found them in September 2026; look up any of them yourself before you eat.

The four that are worth going out of your way for

The White Bear, 57 St John Street. The best building of the lot, and hardly anybody looks at it. It is listed grade II and dated 1899 in the gable: five storeys of red brick and stone over a basement, with a stone ground floor of two broad basket-arched openings divided by a free-standing column, foliage capitals, and wrought-iron grilles across the top of the arches with the words WHITE BEAR worked into the ironwork. The side walls are faced in embossed and glazed tiles, some now missing on the right. Inside, the listing records the original bar front, partitioning with engraved and faceted glass, a structural Corinthian column and a run of embossed tiling, all since painted.

The Fox and Anchor, 115 Charterhouse Street. The Smithfield market pub, and the one with the earliest kitchen: this is where a full breakfast makes sense at an hour when nowhere else is serving. It had the most recent inspection of any pub on this list.

Three Kings, 7 Clerkenwell Close. A one-room corner pub facing the side of St James's church, with a rhinoceros head on the wall and a jukebox rather than a sound system. It is the closest thing in the area to the Britton Street pub in scale, and it is generally easier to get into.

Eagle, 159 Farringdon Road. Worth knowing about for what it did rather than what it is: it opened as a pub with a serious open kitchen in 1991 and is widely credited with inventing the British gastropub. It is a bar with a kitchen along one side and no separate restaurant, which is the format everyone copied.

The half hour before six, and what it does to your evening

Clerkenwell is an office district that empties. From roughly half past five to half past seven on a weekday, every small pub in the table above is full, with drinkers on the pavement outside, and the smallest rooms - Britton Street, Clerkenwell Close - are unenterable. From about eight the same pubs are calm and you can sit down.

That weekday pattern is the one thing a visitor needs to plan around, and it is the same problem as in the legal quarter a mile west, which our page on the Seven Stars and the pubs of Legal London covers. The nearest genuinely weekday-only pub is Ye Olde Mitre, hidden in Ely Court off Hatton Garden, which shuts entirely at weekends.

What to look at between the pubs

St John's Path, the alley beside 55 Britton Street, leads through to Jerusalem Passage, where number 8 and a cast-iron bollard at the southern end are both listed in their own right. Keep walking and you reach St John's Square and St John's Gate, the grade I priory gatehouse that stands across the middle of the road. The Museum of the Order of St John inside it is free in part, and our page on it explains which tour you need to see the crypt.

Clerkenwell Green is two minutes west of the Gate, Exmouth Market five minutes beyond that; our guides to Exmouth Market and to Leather Lane and shopping in Clerkenwell cover the daytime version of the same streets. Farringdon station puts you on the Elizabeth line, which is the fastest way here from the West End or Heathrow.

Prices, ordering and what a round costs

This is inner London and the prices are inner-London prices: expect the middle of the range rather than the top, because these are neighbourhood and office pubs rather than tourist pubs. Our page on what a pint costs in London gives the bands and where they move.

You order and pay at the bar, and you carry your own drinks; nobody will come to your table. Our guide to pub etiquette covers rounds, tipping and last orders. If you want a longer walk between old interiors rather than a single area, our historic pub crawl routes include one that finishes in this quarter, and our page on the George Inn in Southwark covers the one galleried inn left in London.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Jerusalem Tavern still open?

The premises at 55 Britton Street are open, but under a new name: the hygiene register lists the business there as The Holy Tavern, and its own pages give hours of noon to 11pm Monday to Saturday and noon to 9.30pm on Sunday. The Jerusalem Tavern name and the St Peter's Brewery connection are no longer used at that address.

How old is the building at 55 Britton Street?

Historic England dates it to about 1825 and describes it as a terraced house with a shop, listed grade II since September 1972. The much-admired wooden shopfront with Doric columns is early nineteenth century. It is a Georgian shop converted into a pub rather than an ancient tavern, which is worth knowing before you go looking for centuries of bar.

Which is the best pub in Clerkenwell?

For the building, the White Bear on St John Street, which is listed grade II, dated 1899 and keeps its original bar front, engraved glass and tiling. For a small room with character, Three Kings on Clerkenwell Close. For an early breakfast, the Fox and Anchor by Smithfield. All three were rated 5 for hygiene at their most recent inspection.

Are Clerkenwell pubs open at the weekend?

Most are, but the area is quieter and some office-trade pubs keep shorter hours or close on Sunday. Clerkenwell Green and Exmouth Market are the most reliable corners at the weekend. Check individual hours before travelling, particularly for Sunday evening.

What time do Clerkenwell pubs get busy?

From about half past five to half past seven on weekdays, when the design studios and offices empty. The small pubs become impossible in that window and the pavements fill up. Come between noon and two, or after eight, if you want a seat.

Sources

• Historic England - 55, Britton Street, list entry 1280941, grade II (checked September 2026)
• Historic England - The White Bear Public House, 57 St John Street, list entry 1208737, grade II (checked September 2026)
• Historic England - St John's Gate, list entry 1208827, grade I (checked September 2026)
• Food Standards Agency - food hygiene ratings register, The Holy Tavern, 55 Britton Street EC1M 5UQ, and every other pub named on this page (checked September 2026)
• Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (checked September 2026)