You can’t get much more Old London than the Trafalgar Tavern on the riverside at Greenwich, just past the Old Royal Naval College, with historic buildings to either side and behind, and modernity of Canary Wharf across the Thames at the front. It even has its own Wikipedia page.
On this site since 1837, the venue took advantage of the newly developing railway and steam boat services to bring large numbers of customers. Their ‘whitebait feasts’, featuring the tiny whitefish then plentiful in the Thames, were particularly famous, and patronised by the great and good of Victorian society, particularly writers including Charles Dickens, William Thackery, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Wilkie Collins, and also much of the political establishment, led by Gladstone.
These days, not surprisingly, the operators are trading on their ‘historic tourist mecca’ position, and as a result the place can be crowded, noisy, and rather over-priced. The generally traditional pub-style food is OK, and you can still get whitebait, though not in the quantity that Dickens or Conan Doyle would have expected. Perhaps best to try to find a quiet corner with a drink, and contemplate the river.
The Occasional Informationist 