If you’ve in London on a business trip and there’s a late afternoon meeting scheduled on a Friday, text your apologies, see if the meeting can be rescheduled for another time and conveniently slip away to a pub instead. Don’t worry about the others at the meeting, because most of them will have made their excuses as well. It’s London after all and a Friday to boot!

Hopefully, you’re staying at a London hotel in the financial district known as the City. There are countless pubs and bars, from the old haunts of Charles Dickens to the smart bars for the lawyers, bankers and other City professionals in need of a little afternoon refreshment as well.

On Fleet Street, the former home of the British press and was once known for centuries as the ‘street of adventure’ for all the foreign correspondents, but now it’s known as the ‘Street of Shame’ for the tabloid press reporters. It is here where you’ll find the Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pub, which was rebuilt after the 1666 Great Fire of London . This wood-paneled, sawdust-strewn pub was where Charles Dickens and other illustrious former regulars such as literary giants Alfred Tennyson, Oliver Goldsmith, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Samuel Johnson all went when they too did not want to attend a late afternoon business meeting.

If the Cheese is crowded, you might try the Lamb Tavern, located at the heart of the covered Leadenhall Market, which was first built in 1309 and also rebuilt after the Great Fire. If however, you prefer a more modern vibe, not too far away is the sleek, slick ‘Revolution in the City’ bar, which is situated across from the famous Lloyds of London and the Gherkin building. On the same side of the street is the Abacus bar.

London pubs in the late afternoon are a place not to be missed, but if you feel you can’t cancel that meeting, at least see if it can be moved to… let’s say a pub?

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