Truckles of Pied Bull Yard

Overseas visitors to the British Museum in search of a fine London hostelry for lunch might do well to bypass some of Holborn’s more lacklustre taverns in favour of this old-style Davy’s ale & port house. We like the airy ground-floor cafe-bar with its light wood & leather sofas, but the Little Dorritt-style candlelit cellar will fulfil most tourists’ fantasies of Dickensian London. Davy’s steadfast approach to filling its loyal customers bellies with decent grub & top-notch vino (a Beaune premier cru at £36.50 from among the upper echelons of its strong list, say) reminds us of what makes Britain great. A ‘truckle’, for our foreign friends’ information, is both a wine holder on wheels (for ferrying bottles from one end of a grand table to another) & a cheese measure. Try the Stilton, another British great.