The Seven Stars, LondonThe Seven Stars
- Best time
- Not between five and seven on a court day
- Getting there
- Behind the Royal Courts of Justice; Chancery Lane or Temple
Why it’s in the log
Painted on the front: 1602. Historic England and the historians who have examined the fabric put the building in the 1680s. Both can be true at once — there was very likely a licensed house here in 1602 — but a date on a frontage is a claim about a site, not about the walls around you, and the Seven Stars is the clearest illustration of that distinction in central London.
It is Grade II listed, was once known as The Log and Seven Stars, and is genuinely tiny: two narrow rooms and a staircase built with no thought for people carrying drinks. Sitting directly behind the Royal Courts of Justice, it works as the barristers' local, so it empties and fills on the court timetable rather than the office one.
Come outside the post-hearing rush. At almost any other hour it is one of the quietest old rooms in this part of London.
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