QYPE*

A great pub tucked away almost beneath Charing Cross station, with the added bonus of Hall & Woodhouse’s excellent real ales - try the Tanglefoot, which is really gorgeous.

The larger of the two sides has a bit more character, with a Victorian style interior of wood, etched glass and carpets, but the other side of Craven Passage is a bit more down to earth - take your pick.

The ‘Shovell’ in the title - and I notice the pub and its website can’t agree on whether it is Shovel or Shovell - is named after Sir Cloudesley Shovell (1659-1707), the celebrated and popular admiral of the British fleet and MP for Rochester, who died ignominiously on the rocks of the Isles of Scilly in fog, after a navigational error wrecked his flagship, the ‘Association’.

Legend states that he was washed ashore alive, but exhausted, and was murdered by a poor and old woman for his rings. She is said to have confessed all on her deathbed to a clergyman and returned the rings. There is a memorial to him at Porthellick, on the Scilly Isles, where his body was found.

The pub has appropriate maps, nautical charts and pictures of ships reflecting the nautical theme.