Finding a cheap pint in London is becoming an almost impossible task.
Whether it is a weekend on the lash, post-work drinks, watching the football or even the hallowed solo pint, you’re looking at dropping a chunk of change.
Office for National Statistics figures showed that the average price of a pint in the capital now costs £5.69.
However, for most Londoners the idea of coughing up less than £7 for a jar of the amber nectar feels like a distant memory from a simpler time.
The Trafalgar Tavern in Greenwich, south-east London went viral earlier this year after drinkers were forced to shell out an astronomical £8.50 – and that wasn’t even the most expensive pint on offer (£8.80, if you’re wondering!)
However, for anyone looking to enjoy a bev or two without breaking the bank, there are bargain boozers out there, if you’re willing to look.
Crowdsourcing map cheapestpint.uk allows people to self-report the price of a pint at any pub across the UK.
However, any pubs that do have a website do not publish their beer prices online, making it difficult to know in many cases where the cheapest pint local to you actually is.
While this could make you question the accuracy of the list, the individual responsible for creating the site has pointed out that they make every effort to ensure that ‘people can’t put fake answers in and to keep the pint prices as accurate as possible.’
They also state that they ‘manually review and remove’ any pints ‘that fall through the cracks’ if the price is not deemed to be genuine.
One pint immediately caught MailOnline’s attention when browsing this list out of the 269 pints that have been verified within London to date.
This was in the form of a pint of Greene King Ruddles Best, which was submitted as costing the scarcely-believable sum of £1.69.
In awe of such a discovery, MailOnline loaded up the JD Wetherspoon app to check if such a hallowed price-point could really exist.
As it turns out, dreams really can come true – and pints in London are available for under £2 after all as a quick check of the app confirmed.
After additionally contacting JD Wetherspoon for clarification of the prices, MailOnline can reveal that there are seven pubs in Greater London where the chain sells either a pint of Ruddles or Greene King IPA for £1.69.
The Assembly Rooms in Epsom also sells a pint of Greene King IPA for £1.69 and, although the pub is within the M25, it falls outside of the Greater London area.
It also added that there were an additional 60 pubs within the M25 that sell Ruddles or Greene King IPA at £1.79.
Regarding the next cheapest product, it said there are 16 pubs within the M25 that sell Worthington’s for £1.86.
Crowdsourcing map cheapestpint.uk allows people to self-report the price of a pint at any pub across the UK (File image)
In an era where craft lagers tasting like exotic fruits and coffee flavours are often preferred over a proper taste of barley, so-called ‘IPA connoisseurs’ might turn their nose up at the thought of a mass-produced beer for a cheap price.
But, think about how absurd prices for commonly-drank pints have become elsewhere in London.
In 2024, it is not uncommon to have to fork out nearly £15 for two pints.
By comparison, if you were to have £15 and solely order Greene King Ruddles Best from The Surrey Docks, you would be able to purchase eight pints and still have £1.48 left over.
To many Brits, any pint at that price point is eminently drinkable, but then nobody below the age of 76 frequently drinks Worthington’s other than based on how cheap it often is compared to anything else at a Spoons.
Would a pint of Greene King Ruddles Best go down as anywhere near one of the best pints anyone has ever had? Absolutely not. But it wouldn’t be anything close to the worst.
It presents itself as everything a more expensive beer yearns to be: cold, refreshing and tasty – only without cost an eyebrow-raising sum to purchase.
What it most certainly would be is one of the most memorable pints anyone has ever drank thanks to how much – or indeed little – it sets them back.
For as long as the chain keeps its prices this low for certain beers, at a time when other pubs feel like they increase theirs with each flip of a calendar every four weeks, people should not have any shame about drinking a cheap pint in Spoons.