Can I Become a Gin Drinker?

I simply can't get away from England, despite my initial feeling that there wasn't really much to see in London. 

Penny's drink of choice is gin.  Mine is rum or bourbon or tequila, but not gin.  Penny drinks it straight on ice.  I'm looking for interesting cocktails but I always remember The Ghost Map, the book about the London cholera epidemic in 1854 in which Dr. John Snow discovered that the source of the epidemic was drinking water from the Broad Street pump. Dr. Snow drank from that pump but didn't catch cholera because he always added gin to his water.  A good reason for carrying a hip flask of gin with you when you travel.
There's a John Snow pub in Soho near the Broad Street pump.

The Craft Gin Club has an article on the 9 types of gin drinkers so I can know which one to become.  Visit London has an article on the Best Gin Bars in London so I can know where to go.  For instance 214 Bermondsey has a 214 Spritz for 8£ that sound good:  House-made sloe gin & damson gins, Aperol, lemon topped with Prosecco & soda.  The Charlie Chaplin for 8.5£ also sounds like my kind of drink: Sloe gin, Edinburgh Raspberry liqueur, apricot, lime & homemade grenadine.   Or they have Gin & Tonic flights where they give you three mini G&Ts as listed but in an unknown order with a sealed revealing envelope. Try them all and make a guess as to what’s what.  I could go for that if it weren't 18£.  Or I could cop out and order the Lion's Tail: Makers Mark, lime & Allspice Drum.

 “Twisting the lion’s tail” was an American slang expression for provoking the British during the period of American Anglophobia between the World Wars.

I wasn't aware there was anglophobia between the wars but then I wouldn't know, would I?

English Garden Cocktail

Olive Magazine has an article on the Top 15 British Gins so we will know what we can't afford and of course there are the Nicholson's Pubs with their Gin Library.  Olive Magazine also lists the Top 10 gin bars in the UK, 7 of which are in London, including the City of London Distillery that Penny  mentioned where you can make your own gin for a price -- cheaper to buy the ready made.   Olive Magazine also has a recipe for the English Garden Cocktail which we could sip while ambling through Kew Gardens.

According to Wikipedia, gin became popular in England when William of Orange brought it (jenever) over with him from the Dutch Republic when he and his wife Mary occupied the British throne from 1689 to 1702.  When juniper berries weren't available, the distillers would often use turpentine to achieve those woody notes.  In the 18th century there was a softer, sweeter style of gin referred to as Old Tom gin, somewhere between the sweeter malty Dutch jenever and the London dry gin.  Some craft gins are bringing that back (lucky me).   Finally, in Britain's tropical colonies, gin was used to mask the bitterness of quinine, thus giving rise to the gin and tonic,  G&T for short.  I'm becoming curiouser and curiouser about gin.