Imperial Hotel Paddington

The Imperial Paddington opened in 1874 as the Cross Guns Hotel, changed to the Imperial in 1891, and was knocked down and rebuilt in 1910 by Edmund Resch of the Waverley Brewery. The Resch family, via Owen Peters Ltd, has held the freehold ever since — now past the hundred-year mark on the same building. A fit-out between 2008 and 2011 opened up an upstairs lounge and a retractable-roof beer garden; the kitchen runs pub fare with proper house-made meat pies, and an Asian sharing menu on the weekend. The on-site micro-brewery pours small-batch Resch specials, and a distillery runs alongside it under the same family banner.

Dogs are welcome downstairs. Ten Art Deco hotel rooms sit above the pub, which puts the Imperial among the small list of Paddington venues where a leashed dog, a schnitzel and a brewery tour line up on the one site.