[2025 London Stay] Travel Guide for Fox and Anchor (Updated Feb)

The Fox and Anchor in Smithfield has the best snug in London. It's my absolute go to place for dinner whenever I'm anywhere near the square mile. I've travelled across the city and from beyond the M25 to eat here and if I ask you to join me, you'll know how much I value your company. The snug-cum-dining room is at the back of this long thin pub so you have the pleasure of absorbing the intimate bar experience as you wade through to your seat. Enter the snug and four small tables present themselves to you. Behind those tables are three inner snugs, one of which has its own doors, so punters can close themselves in for that most personal of dinners and conversations.

I have a love affair with the Fox and Anchor, it's among my three favourite pubs in London. On a rare visit when it was empty I had the chance to photograph it properly and this post is the result. For me it's close to perfection. Its long slim shape creates a level of intimacy and closeness between punters you just don't get in many other pubs. The bar and all the woodwork are warming and unchangingly familiar. On early visits before Youngs took over, beer was still served in tankards. That look back into a past era of drinking awes me. There used to be broadsheets, including the Guardian and Times in here, just waiting to be read.