Layover London Gatwick arriving hopefully at 0700 & separate ticket to Madrid on the same day

What time do you have to be at the club?

For me, catching a 19.00 flight to arrive in Madrid at around 22:30 is pushing it. That means passing through immigration, leaving the airport, presumably going to your hotel to drop off luggage and then get to the club. A later flight would probably prove too late.

So for the 19:00 flight you need to be at Gatwick for 17:00 which means a day at the British Museum and a pub (would have to be lunch) for fish and chips would be very rushed. You could have fish and chips at one of the pubs in the airport, it'd likely be the same as pub fish and chips are nothing like chip shop fish and chips.

If it was me I'd simply forego London and catch a flight to Madrid later that morning or early afternoon.

As said by JC, eating fish and chips in a pub is not the best experience, definitely better from a chippy.

I’ve always wondered where the idea that you have fish and chips in
the pub started. You can, but it’s really not the real thing.

This puzzles me too. I guess it’s because fish & chips and pubs are two such characteristic British things, and somewhere along the line they’ve become conflated.

I find most of the posts about pubs on this site from our American friends are about eating in pubs - as if that was their main purpose. I’m like - well, okay, the food in some pubs is fine, but it’s not their primary purpose. Go and have a few beers in a pub, then find a restaurant for your food.

So back to the OP - fish & chips are best from a chip shop. And pubs are best for drink, although some pubs will offer a passable facsimile of fish & chips.

If you were to take a 5pm flight from Gatwick, that would get you to Madrid at 8.30pm, as they are an hour ahead, so say 9.30 by the time you are through the airport and presumably an hour to your accommodation, so 10.30pm? Check in, shower and get changed and get to your destination could be at least another hour? Does this get you there early enough? You would have to leave central London at 2pm allowing for tube and rail travel then retrieving your bag.

Arriving at Gatwick at 7am is one of the busiest arrival times of the day, so anywhere between 45 minutes and 2 + hours to clear the airport plus a few minutes to drop your bag. Wait for a train, then a journey of just over an hour to the British Museum, if all transport is working well and you cope well with jet lag. So at the BM sometime between 9.30 and 11am (it opens at 10am). So you will have between 4.5 and 3 hours in central London.

As others have said, you can’t get “proper” fish and chips in a restaurant or pub. There aren’t many fish and chip shops in central London as they can’t afford the rents. The Golden Hind in Marylebone is the best I have come across in all my years working in London.

This puzzles me too. I guess it’s because fish & chips and pubs are
two such characteristic British things, and somewhere along the line
they’ve become conflated.

Just a guess but very probably because it's such an ubiquitous menu item at American facsimiles of the British or Irish pub. I can go right down the line of the many in my twin cities (Minneapolis-St Paul) - Kip's, Brit's, Kieran’s, The Local, George and the Dragon, The Liffey, Merlin’s Rest, McCormick’s, Morrissey’s… and fish and chips is on the bill, often a 'featured' item. Many offer bangers and mash, shepherd's pie, pasties, poutine and the like as well but fish is likely the biggest seller.

Shoot, we can get fish and fries all sorts of places but the idea is definitely there that it's more 'authentic' at these types of pubs so that must be true Across The Pond as well. Here, it's usually better quality/prep than at the bowling alley, anyway! :O)

This might be the closest thing we have to your chippy?
http://www.theanchorfishandchips.com

Sorry for the sidetrack, Jazz. Hope you have a great trip, and find some good fish along the way. :O)

This might be the closest thing we have to your chippy?
http://www.theanchorfishandchips.com

Not bad but they offer too much (those sausages on the breakfast look horrendous, artificial casings stuffed full of cheap mechanically recovered 'meat') but I guess if I were to open a chippie in the US I don't think it would survive if it was run like a traditional one in the UK so I can understand why they offfer more than the traditional options.

A proper chippie should be a soulless, utilitarian affair. You're only there to place your order and then get out as soon as possible. The only things on the counter should be salt, vinegar, a jar of pickled eggs and one of pickled onions. The only accompaniments that should be available are mushy peas and in the case of up North, gravy.

If there are tables and chairs to eat at then they're trying too hard to be a restaurant and should be viewed with suspicion.

Sorry to hijack your thread Jazz+Travels but it is slightly related.

Thanks and the winning plan was from Jennifer in Tunbridge Wells.
I booked a flight at 17:00 leaving 3 or 4 hours in London.
I'm traveling with my 21 year old niece it is more her idea

"​Fully authentic Fish & Chipper" chipper?? That means cheerful doesn't it??
http://www.theanchorfishandchips.com

If there are tables and chairs to eat at then they're trying too hard
to be a restaurant and should be viewed with suspicion.

LOL. Shades of Lola's split-a-gut-hilarious "Petty Crime in London" thread.

The problem is also with the fish used. Proper fish and chips is made with haddock. But that's harder to find sold in a southern chip 'ole and especially in their pubs they will almost invariably be using the inferior, bland cod. Also, no scraps.

Proper fish and chips is made with haddock. But that's harder to find sold in a southern chip 'ole

Nonsense! There isn't a chippie that I've visited in the South that doesn't serve haddock. You Northerners just make stuff up ; )