Samuel Pepys once described the pub as ‘the heart of England’, and rightly so, considering that there are few more pleasurable things than supping a pint of ale in good company.

From naval reserve sailors toasting to their health to Fleet Street reporters grabbing a quick drink across the road from the Houses of Parliament, this collection of images sheds light on all manner of goings-on from some of London’s most vibrant watering holes, and the locals that have frequented them over the years.

 circa 1900: Ye Old Dick Whittington Pub in Smithfield in the City of London. (London Stereoscopic Company/Getty Images)

circa 1905: The Greyhound Public House in Dulwich, London (Reinhold Thiele/Thiele/Getty Images)

1923: The bar of a public house in the city of London with turkeys and hams on sale for Christmas. (Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

1937: Australian heavyweight boxer George Cook carrying a barrel of beer above his head at the pub he owns in Marylebone, London. Although the work keeps him fit, the British Boxing Board of Control has refused to renew his fighting licence. (J. A. Hampton/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

1938: ‘Kim’, the buffet cat, with a barmaid at the Sloane Square buffet ‘The Hole in the Wall’ (John F. Stephenson/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

1939: A group of sailors from the naval reserve enjoying a drink in a pub. (Walter Bellamy/London Express/Getty Images)

1939: A couple of men enjoying a pint at a London pub, protected by sandbags. (George W. Hales/Fox Photos/Getty Images)

1947: Fleet Street crime reporters meet at ‘the dive’, St Stephen’s Tavern, across the road from the Houses of Parliament, London. (Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

1947: Patrons of The Crown public house, on Blackfriars Road, London, celebrate the wedding of Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) and Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh. (Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

1948: A new sign about to be hung outside ‘The Greyhound’, an old coaching inn in Carshalton. (Warburton/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

1949: Publican Peggy Powell stocks a selection of London brews at the Shakespeare Hotel in Folkestone, Kent, in order to maintain her popularity with London holidaymakers. (Don Price/Fox Photos/Getty Images)

1949: Mr John Chester, pub licensee, listens as organist Vick Smith plays the organ which he has had installed in his pub The Earl of Derby, Forest Gate. (Fox Photos/Getty Images)

A busy street scene outside the Elephant and Castle tavern, Southwark. A horse tram and horse drawn onmibus wait at the road junction. It was destroyed in the Blitz and the area has been redeveloped. (English Heritage/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

1949: A view of pedestrians and a street corner pub in Prusom Street, Wapping, east London. (Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

1949: Men unloading barrels of beer outside a pub in the Pool of London, while their carthorse feeds from a nosebag. (Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

1950: Two men enjoying a drink at ‘The Prospect of Whitby’, one of London’s famous public houses. (Central Press/Getty Images)

1950: Training barmen at a pub near Cambridge Circus, Charing Cross, London. (Fox Photos/Getty Images)

1950: A contingent of Chelsea Pensioners attend the unveiling of a portrait of one of their number outside ‘The Old Sergeant’ on Parsonage Lane, Enfield. (MacGregor/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

1950: An old woman sitting in the Green Man, a pub in Bethnal Green, London. (Erich Auerbach/Getty Images)

1955: A group of men play skittles in the Black Lion pub, London. (Three Lions/Getty Images)

1959: Dominic Behan singing at a folk session, Enterprise Public House, Long Acre, London. (EFD SS/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

1961: British film and stage actor Albert Finney playing the piano in a pub near London’s Cambridge Theatre where he is appearing in the stage version of ‘Billy Liar’. (John Pratt/Getty Images)

1965: A group of four newly-appointed clergymen enjoy a drink with the Bishop of Southwark at a local pub. (Keystone/Getty Images)

1969: Customers at the ‘Piss House’ pub on the Portobello Road, Notting Hill, London. (Charlie Phillips/Getty Images)

1971: 27-year-old landlady Linda Coulter-Brown poses with six of her barmaids at the ‘Bird’s Nest’, a new Railway pub in West End Lane, north-west London. (Douglas Miller/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)