The 1620 Mooring Point Is Still Visible at Low Tide
A Thames-side pub on the site the Pilgrim ship sailed from, with a jetty most first-timers walk past and a cask list that turns over every couple of days.
The jetty is the whole thing. Walk through the pub, past the bar and the low-ceilinged front rooms, out the back door, and there is a wooden deck cantilevered over the Thames with a handful of tables on it. At low tide the river pulls back and what the pub says is the original 1620 mooring point of the Mayflower — the ship, the one that sailed to Plymouth — is visible from the rail. Regulars have been known to drink here for months before finding the deck. Do not be that person.
The pub sits on Rotherhithe Street in SE16, a two-minute walk from Rotherhithe Overground and about ten from Canada Water via Swan Road. It has a strong claim to being the oldest pub on the Thames. It is the only pub in the UK licensed to sell US postage stamps, a quirk of the Mayflower connection, and it keeps a descendants' book behind the bar — bring proof of a bloodline to a 1620 passenger and your name goes in it. Downstairs is the pub. Upstairs is a candlelit restaurant with river-view windows. Neither pretends to be anything other than what it is.
The riverside jetty is the reason to come and the rotating cask list is the reason to stay past a single pint.
Editorial Deep
ABK Lager sits in line with what a Rotherhithe pint should cost in 2026 and cheaper than most Thames-view rooms would dare charge. The keg line-up is competent. The cask line-up is the reason to sit down. It rotates every couple of days, which means the pump clip pointing at you on a Tuesday is unlikely to be there on Saturday. Ask what's on and take a punt on the one you don't recognise — that is the house move, and the staff enjoy being asked.
Conversation is possible at a normal volume, which in a pub with this much tourist interest is not a given. The rooms are low, wood-heavy and candlelit — the upstairs restaurant leans harder on the candles and the river-view windows, the ground floor is more standard old-pub territory with worn boards and a bar you can lean straight into. Sound absorbs into the timber. Nobody has installed a system that fights the room.
A mix of Rotherhithe locals, Thames Path walkers who timed their pint right, and Americans who have made the pilgrimage because their surname turned up in a genealogy search. The descendants' book pulls a specific kind of visitor and the pub handles them with grace rather than eye-rolling. Weekend afternoons on the jetty run loud and busy; weekday evenings inside are quieter and older. The crowd is part of the product here, not a cost of it — the pilgrim-descendant at the next table is a feature.
A mandatory service charge is added and has drawn complaints — check the bill before you tip on top, because you have already tipped. The pint price is the honest number in the room; the service charge is the one to watch.
This is the best version of what a historic Thames-side pub can be — a working room with a real jetty, a rotating cask list, and a backstory that is not a marketing exercise. Come back for a sunny Saturday afternoon on the deck with a pint of something you have never heard of, ideally around low tide so the mooring point is visible from the rail. Do not come back expecting a late night — the pub closes at 11pm Monday to Saturday and 10pm on Sunday, and Rotherhithe is not a neighbourhood that keeps going after. The last Overground back to central runs earlier than you think; check before the second round.
Order this
Drink this.
A rotating cask ale (ask what's new) and the fish and chips
“Go for the jetty at sunset with a mystery cask pint; skip if you want a late night.”
The Mayflower is a genuine historic pub, not a themed one — it sits on what it says is the 1620 mooring point of the Pilgrim ship, keeps a descendants' book behind the bar for anyone with proof of ancestry, and runs a cask rotation that changes every couple of days. The jetty is the reason to make the trip to SE16; the fish and chips justify a proper sit-down. Score the Sunday roast lower than the rest of the kitchen and check the bill for the mandatory service charge before tipping again. Come for a Saturday afternoon around low tide, walk it back with a pint from the mystery pump, and leave before the last Overground.
The Verdict
