Chislehurst, whose name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon words for pebble and wood, has had some famous residents: Walsingham had a house here and Napoleon III came to Chislehurst after 1871 when he was exiled from France. He may perhaps have visited the Bull’s Head, as it has existed since at least 1753. Today it is a spacious and pleasant hotel on the edge of countryside and near the historic Chislehurst caves.

The Bull’s Head was originally a coaching inn with rooms for travellers and was a small hotel when bought by Young’s in 1931. It was hit by bombs in 1945 but was quickly reopened. In the 1960s, the boxer Henry Cooper stayed here while training for several of his championship fights and in 1969, the brewery chairman, John Young, presented him with a sliver horseshoe as a good luck charm. It was CAMRA’s Town Pub of the year in 1999.