The Most Elegant Pubs in St John's Wood, Hampstead & Chelsea - A Gin Palace Myth, a Bridget Jones Pub.
The Most Elegant Pubs in St John's Wood, Hampstead & Chelsea — A Marble Gin Palace and Its Famous Lie, a Bridget Jones Pub & a Beer Garden by the Heath
Four pubs from London's wealthiest postcodes — a Victorian palace built on a legend that never happened, a phone-free local between Lord's and Abbey Road, a 170-year-old pub at the foot of Hampstead Heath, and the Chelsea bar where Bridget met Daniel Cleaver again.
Quick answer: The most elegant pubs in north and west London's richest neighbourhoods are Crocker's Folly in St John's Wood — a Grade II listed 1898 gin palace with a CAMRA three-star interior and a famous suicide legend that turns out to be false — and The Pig's Ear in Chelsea, where Bridget meets Daniel Cleaver in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (2025). The Ordnance Arms is a no-music, no-TV local near Lord's and Abbey Road, and The Garden Gate has one of the biggest beer gardens by Hampstead Heath. All four have poster prints from £3 at 98types.co.uk.
📋 In This Guide
- Crocker's Folly — The Marble Palace and the Legend That Never Happened
- The Ordnance Arms — A Phone-Free Local Between Lord's and Abbey Road
- The Garden Gate, Hampstead — 170 Years at the Foot of the Heath
- The Pig's Ear, Chelsea — The Bridget Jones Pub
- Quick Reference
- Build a St John's Wood, Hampstead & Chelsea Pub Poster Wall
- Frequently Asked Questions
St John's Wood, Hampstead and Chelsea are three of the most expensive places to live in Britain — leafy streets of white stucco villas, Georgian terraces and garden squares, home over the decades to Beatles, poets, film stars and a future Princess of Wales. Their pubs match the postcodes: marble, mahogany, stained glass and dining rooms that take their cooking seriously. But the best thing about these four is not how they look. It's the stories. A Victorian publican whose "ruin" became one of London's best-loved pub legends, even though it never happened. A barracks pub that has served the same street since the 1850s. A Hampstead tavern that changed its name three times as the railway arrived. And a Chelsea bar that found itself back on cinema screens in 2025.
Crocker's Folly, St John's Wood — The Marble Palace and the Legend That Never Happened
Crocker's Folly
👻 The Legend of Frank Crocker — and What Really Happened
Ask anyone in St John's Wood about Crocker's Folly and you'll hear the story. In the 1890s the Great Central Railway was driving south towards London, and Frank Crocker, a publican who already ran the Volunteer in Kilburn, became convinced its new terminus would open right beside his plot on Aberdeen Place. He gambled everything on a hotel grand enough to greet the thousands of passengers about to pour off the trains.
The station, so the story goes, opened instead at Marylebone, more than half a mile away. The customers never came. Crocker was ruined, threw himself from an upstairs window of his own palace, and his ghost has haunted the bar ever since.
It's a perfect pub tale — and almost none of it is true. According to CAMRA's heritage researchers, the Marylebone site had been approved back in 1893, before Crocker started building, and the two projects went up at the same time. Frank Crocker died of natural causes in 1904, aged just 41, after a long illness, a popular and respected member of the community. The building even had a railway connection after all: the Great Central's Marylebone goods depot sat a stone's throw away.
So why does the myth survive? Because the building looks exactly like a gamble. Standing on a quiet residential corner, three storeys of red and plum brick, it feels far too grand for its street — a palace in the middle of nowhere. When the owners renamed it in 1987, they chose the legend over the truth, and Londoners have been telling it ever since.
Inside, the saloon is said to use around 50 different types of marble, with Romanesque columns, a Jacobean-style ceiling, cut glass and carved mahogany. The pub also sits directly above the Maida Hill canal tunnel, so it pairs beautifully with a towpath walk from Little Venice. The Crocker's Folly poster in gold and marble tones captures the grandeur of its ceiling and carved detail — a print of the most beautiful mistake that was never actually a mistake.
The Ordnance Arms, St John's Wood — A Phone-Free Local Between Lord's and Abbey Road
The Ordnance Arms
🎖️ A Pub Named After a Barracks
For more than two centuries, Ordnance Hill was a military street. The St John's Wood Barracks occupied the site of the old St John's Farm from 1804 until 2012, and the "ordnance" in the street's name — artillery and military supplies — tells you exactly who the pub was built to serve. Victorian census records list its licensees by name, from Charles Bloomfield in the 1850s to John Edward Dyson, who took over in 1858 and lived above the bar with his wife, children, barman, barmaid and nursemaid.
The pub survived the Blitz — just. In January 1942 enemy action forced it to close, and it stayed shut for a full year before reopening. The barracks have gone, but the pub that served them is still here.
Today it belongs to Samuel Smith's, the Yorkshire brewery famous for its house rules: no music, no television, and only its own beers behind the bar. In a neighbourhood of private members' clubs and designer boutiques, that makes the Ordnance Arms something rare — a place where St John's Wood locals simply talk. They hold wedding drinks and family celebrations here, and the menu leans on hearty, locally sourced pies.
Its location is the other draw. Lord's Cricket Ground and the famous zebra crossing outside Abbey Road Studios are both around ten minutes' walk away, making it an easy stop before a Test match or after the Beatles photo. The Ordnance Arms poster in slate grey and brass reflects the pub's understated, old-school St John's Wood character.
The Garden Gate, Hampstead — 170 Years at the Foot of the Heath
The Garden Gate
🚂 Three Names, One Corner
The Garden Gate's history follows the story of Hampstead itself. In the 1850s South End Green was still the edge of a village, and the pub on the corner was the Perseverance. When the railway reached Hampstead Heath and the station opened just up the road, the pub did what Victorian pubs always did: it renamed itself after the thing bringing in customers. As the Railway Tavern, it served day-trippers pouring off the trains to walk on the Heath for more than a hundred years.
Old photographs from Historic England show it in the late 1960s and 1970s, standing at the foot of a congested South End Road. The name changed again, but the job never did: it is still the first pint and the last pint of a day on Hampstead Heath.
Today it is a black-and-white Brewer's Tudor building with stained glass, soft lighting and several cosy rooms. The real attraction is outside: a vast garden decked with greenery and a cloister-like covered terrace, with barbecues at weekends in good weather. Expect cask ales such as Doom Bar alongside rotating guest beers, a seasonal British menu and a proper Sunday roast. Time Out singled out its prices as pleasantly un-Hampstead-like.
Walk up Parliament Hill for the view across the city, then come back down to South End Green — the restored historic fountain is just outside. The Garden Gate poster in fresh green and white captures the pub's leafy beer garden and the feel of a summer afternoon after a walk on the Heath.
The Pig's Ear, Chelsea — The Bridget Jones Pub off the King's Road
The Pig's Ear
🎬 Bridget Meets Daniel — Again
In Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (2025), Renée Zellweger's Bridget has moved to Hampstead and is rebuilding her life. In one scene she heads across London to Chelsea, where she meets Daniel Cleaver — Hugh Grant, returning to the role that made him the franchise's favourite cad — for a drink at The Pig's Ear.
It's a fitting choice. Old Church Street is one of the most quietly famous streets in London. Manolo Blahnik's boutique is here, a young Catherine Middleton once lived in a flat on the street, and the Chelsea Arts Club sits further up the same street. A pub on a side street just off the King's Road, full of well-heeled locals and old film posters, is exactly where Daniel Cleaver would drink.
The Gladwin brothers have kept it as a proper pub. Downstairs is a busy bar for a pint of Harvey's or Adnams; upstairs is a light-filled dining room with high ceilings and tall sash windows, hung with artwork by the brothers' mother. The menu is seasonal British cooking, much of it from the family farm in West Sussex, and newlyweds from Chelsea Old Town Hall often come here to celebrate. The pub even has its own running club.
Combine it with a walk down to the Chelsea Embankment, where Battersea Power Station rises across the river. The Pig's Ear poster in soft pink and Chelsea brick tones nods to the romantic comedy that put it on screen — the natural pick for any Bridget Jones fan.
Quick Reference: St John's Wood, Hampstead & Chelsea
| # | Pub | Area | Why Special | Poster |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Crocker's Folly | Aberdeen Place, NW8 | CAMRA three-star marble interior; the false Frank Crocker legend | Shop → |
| 02 | The Ordnance Arms | Ordnance Hill, NW8 | Barracks pub since 1856; no music or TV; near Lord's & Abbey Road | Shop → |
| 03 | The Garden Gate | South End Road, NW3 | Pub site since 1855; huge beer garden by Hampstead Heath | Shop → |
| 04 | The Pig's Ear | Old Church Street, SW3 | Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (2025) filming location | Shop → |
Build a St John's Wood, Hampstead & Chelsea Pub Poster Wall
🏏 The NW8 Wall
Crocker's Folly (gin palace legend) + Ordnance Arms (barracks pub) + Regent's Park map print = buy-3-get-1-free, add a Mind the Gap print free. St John's Wood on one wall.
🌳 The Hampstead Heath Wall
Garden Gate (beer garden by the Heath) + Camden Town map print + Camden Market photo = a North London afternoon in three prints, triggering buy-3-get-1-free.
🎬 The London on Screen Wall
Pig's Ear (Bridget Jones, 2025) + Crocker's Folly (Georgy Girl, 1966) + a print from our British Movies & TV collection = sixty years of London pubs on film.
🥂 The Elegant London Pub Trail
Crocker's Folly + Garden Gate + Pig's Ear + the London city street map = three of London's smartest postcodes, with the map that connects them.
London Illustrations Battersea, Camden, Kew and London landmarks from £3 
London Street Maps Regent's Park, Camden Town, Hyde Park — detailed neighbourhood maps 
London Photography Camden, Hyde Park and iconic London scenes from £3
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Frank Crocker really jump from the window of Crocker's Folly?
No. The legend says he was ruined when the Great Central Railway terminus opened at Marylebone instead of beside Crocker's Folly. In fact the Marylebone site was approved in 1893, and Crocker died of natural causes in 1904, aged 41. The pub was called the Crown Hotel until it was renamed after the myth in 1987. Poster from £3 at 98types.co.uk.
What is the most beautiful pub in St John's Wood?
Crocker's Folly on Aberdeen Place. Built in 1898–99 and Grade II listed, it has a CAMRA three-star heritage interior with around 50 types of marble, Romanesque columns, a Jacobean-style ceiling and carved mahogany.
Which pub is in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy?
The Pig's Ear at 35 Old Church Street, Chelsea. Bridget meets Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) there in the 2025 film. It reopened in May 2024 under the Gladwin brothers. Poster from £3 at 98types.co.uk.
Which Hampstead pub has the best beer garden?
The Garden Gate on South End Road has one of the largest beer gardens near Hampstead Heath, with a covered terrace and weekend barbecues in summer. A pub has stood on the site since at least 1855. Poster from £3 at 98types.co.uk.
Is there a pub near Lord's Cricket Ground and Abbey Road Studios?
Yes. The Ordnance Arms on Ordnance Hill is about ten minutes' walk from both. It's a traditional Samuel Smith's pub with no music and no TV, trading since at least 1856 and named after the St John's Wood Barracks.
Where can I buy St John's Wood, Hampstead and Chelsea pub poster prints?
98 Types Studio offers poster prints of Crocker's Folly, The Ordnance Arms, The Garden Gate and The Pig's Ear — all from £3 at 98types.co.uk. Also in person at Camden Market, Market Hall, Lower Floor, Stall 3, NW1 8AL. Open daily 10am–6pm. Rated 5.0★ from 245+ Google reviews.
More London pub guides from 98types