Scientists devise most efficient London pub crawl

It took two years for scientists to work out their route Credit: PA

Academics at a Canadian university have worked out the most efficient route to take in as many of the capital's pubs as possible.

It took two years for a team of mathematics led by William Cook at the University of Waterloo to devise the shortest route between 27,000 pubs across the UK.

It's a variation of the classic mathematical 'travelling salesman' problem, on this occasion applied to getting from pub to pub making the shortest journeys possible.

The maths field is called Operational Research, which started in the UK in the late 1930s as part of the national defence programme.

William Cook, who led the programme visited the UK and thought the tour would provide a good way of seeing the country. It is not all theory for the academic, as he took part in a tour of 100 London pubs last year before the annual general meeting of the London Maths Society.

William Cook, who led the study, reflected in his own picture of the Lamb in Bloomsbury Credit: William Cook
How to negotiate as many Thames-side pubs as possible Credit: Google maps

The paper can be found on the university's website.