1. Olde Coach House, Northamptonshire
There'll be fireworks and a bonfire at this pub tonight. It's a fitting celebration as the Olde Coach House stands where a gatehouse on the Catesby estate played a central role in the Gunpowder Plot. Robert Catesby, his servant Thomas Bates and other conspirators made the room above the gate house their command centre in the plot to blow up parliament. The manor and its grounds passed to the Catesby family in 1375, who were dedicated Roman Catholics and almost ruined by fines imposed on them for their religious beliefs. The present-day inn has a large garden, tiled floors inside, old settles and prints on the wall. The food is highly recommended and accommodation is available.
• Olde Coach House, Ashby St Ledgers, Northamptonshire, off A5; +44 (0)1788 890349.
2. Museum Tavern, London
This sumptuous pub stands opposite the British Museum and has been frequented by many eager beavers following their labours with the museum's tomes. Karl Marx would take ale there after long hours planning the proletarian revolution with Das Kapital. Marx was quite a toper and frequently went on rowdy pub crawls in London with visiting German revolutionaries. The pub dates from the 18th century and was first known as the Dog & Duck but was renamed in honour of the museum when it opened over the road in 1823. Inside there are engraved mirrors and windows, an ornate ceiling, and red painted walls. Beers include Fuller's London Pride, Sharp's Doom Bar and Theakston Old Peculier plus many guest ales.
• Museum Tavern, 49 Great Russell Street, London WC1; +44 (0)20 7242 8987.
3. Star Tavern, London
The Star was once home to a large retinue of servants who worked in the houses and embassies in Belgrave Square. They mingled in the years after World War Two with a demi-monde of chancers, spivs, third-rate actors and slightly shady aristocrats. The pub's main claim to fame is that the gang who organised the Great Train Robbery in 1963 met in the long, narrow upstairs bar, reached by a narrow and circuitous staircase, to plot their audacious crime. Today, this Grade II-listed, late-Georgian mews pub has several cosy nooks, with comfortable benches and settles, and a large bar serving beers from Fuller's of Chiswick.
• Star Tavern, 6 Belgrave Mews West, London SW1; +44 (0)20 7235 3019.
4. Crown & Treaty, Middlesex
This marvellous inn dates from 1576. Its name comes from the protracted talks, lasting 20 days, in 1645 when representatives of Charles I and Cromwell's parliamentarians attempted to reach a settlement to end the rebellion against the crown. The talks were held in the oak-panelled Treaty Room and broke down without reaching agreement on a single point. The war continued, leading eventually to the death of the king and Cromwell's Protectorate.
The panelling has its own fascinating history: it was dismantled in 1931 and sold to an American oil magnate, Armand Hammer, who used it to decorate his offices in the Empire State Building in New York City. The panels were returned to the inn to mark the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. The former coaching inn serves Fuller's London Pride and retains much of its Tudor charm among the modern houses and shopping arcades of Uxbridge.• Crown & Treaty, 90 Oxford Road, Uxbridge, Middlesex; +44 (0)1895 812803.
5. Bat & Ball, Hampshire
Surely there can't be plots involving cricket? The answer is an emphatic yes, for in the 18th and 19th centuries the game was supported by wealthy backers who wagered vast sums on the outcome of matches. Cricket needed to attract large paying crowds and Broadhalfpenny Down, despite its isolated position, drew attendances of 20,000 as the Hambledon Club took on the might of All England and other major teams. In the Bat & Ball, landlord Richard Nyren and fellow players planned a revolution in the game. By the time Hambledon went into decline and the game moved to Thomas Lord's ground in London, it had changed out of all recognition. The first laws of cricket were hammered out in the Bat & Ball, a tiny wicket of two stumps had become the familiar tall one with three stumps, curved bats like hockey sticks had become straight and underarm bowling was replaced by a round-arm version (over-arm bowling came later). Both pub and ground remain today and the pub has many artefacts of the ancient game, including a curved bat. Cask beers are served from Fuller's and Gale's.
• Bat & Ball, Broadhalfpenny Down, Hyden Farm Lane, Clanfield, near Hambledon, Hampshire, off A3; +44 (0)23 9263 2692.
6. Ketts Tavern, Norwich
The tavern dates from 1832 but it's thought there has been an inn on the site for 300 years or more. Ketts Hill fronts the great open space of Mousehold Heath where Robert Kett and a peasant army camped in 1549. Kett was a landowner from Attleborough who had enclosed his land, saw the error of his ways and led a great rebellion against enclosures that had ruined peasants and agricultural labourers. By the time they reached Mousehold Heath, having laid waste to Wymondham and Lethersett, the army was 20,000 strong, an astonishing size that accounted for just about every adult male in Norfolk. The rebels broke through the city walls and defeated an army of 15,000 led by the Marquis of Northampton. It took a second army of 14,000 under the notorious butcher, the Earl of Warwick, to finally overcome the peasants. Robert Kett was hanged in Norwich. The pub named in his honour has a tremendous range of beers from craft breweries, including Blackfriars, Norfolk Square, Tipples and Woodforde's.
• Ketts Tavern, 29 Ketts Hill, Norwich; +44 (0)1603 449654.
7. Crescent, Greater Manchester
There's another Karl Marx connection with the Crescent.
