Ye Olde Chesire Cheese, London

If walls could talk, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese would have quite the barroom story to tell-and probably a few too many footnotes. Part of the Fleet Street setting, this legendary London pub has been keeping glasses full and conversations flowing since 1538. That’s right-before Shakespeare picked up a quill, this place was pouring pints. Rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1666, it still boasts cellars older than an average European country.

Literary heavyweights flocked here like moths to an ale-soaked flame. Samuel Johnson, Mark Twain, G.K. Chesterton, George Orwell, and Charles Dickens all bellied up to the bar-though not all at once, that would’ve been chaos. The atmosphere? Think cozy wood panels, floors strewn with sawdust, and a mysterious maze of monk-era cellars underneath. It once was a monastery, which explains the labyrinth-and perhaps the lingering sense of guilt after your third pint.

Dickens himself gave it a name-drop in A Tale of Two Cities, when Sydney Carton drags Charles Darnay to a tavern for a restorative meal after a courtroom close call. That tavern-Strong odds it was "the Cheese."

Now owned by Sam Smith’s Old Brewery, this time-traveling pub still serves up proper pints and solid meals with a side of history. So if you're craving a drink in the dim glow of literary ghosts-or just want to sit where Dickens might’ve nursed a hangover-pull up a chair. Just don’t get lost in the cellars.