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Hello Londoners. I will be visiting in the early part of November and an item on my to-do list is to have a wonderful pub lunch (or two) somewhere in the city. The last time I was there was in 2019 - pre-Covid - so it is possible that some of the pubs I’ve been to have not remained open or may have ceased serving lunch. No place does savoury pies as well as England (seriously!), and since it can be somewhat chilly in November, it seems so perfect to have a nice pint and a hot and comforting pie and mash lunch.
Since this will be my 14th visit to London, I am familiar with how to get around, but I’d like to narrow things down to the “square mile” - areas that include Holborn, Fleet Street, St Pauls, Liverpool Street, etc., but not so much a place for many tourists. Perhaps a place that clears out enough after the workers go back to the office that I can find a table to spread out my newspaper and enjoy the ambience. I sincerely appreciate any suggestions that come my way.
While walking around the area you mention one Sunday last May, I saw the sign for Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, in a little alleyway off Fleet Street, and popped in for lunch.
While walking around the area you mention one Sunday last May, I saw the sign for Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, in a little alleyway off Fleet Street, and popped in for lunch.
The Spaniard Inn in Hampstead in London, has a long and interesting history, however like a lot of old Inn's and pubs in England, it's haunted, so be warned.
The Mayflower Pub (1550) in Rotherhithe is close to where the Mayflower ship was fitted out for the long transatlantic voyage, and the nearby landing steps to the pub were those used by the Pilgrim Fathers who set sail for the new world aboard The Mayflower Ship in 1620
Another famous pub is the The Eagle which is mentioned in the original Nursery Rhyme Pop Goes the Weasel.
Up and down the City Road,
In and out the Eagle,
That's the way the money goes,
Pop! Goes the weasel.
A few pubs that were famous haunts of writers, with both Shakespeare and later Dickens both enjoying a pint at the George, although during very different centuries. Orwell liked a pint in the The Dog and Duck in Soho, whilst the Marquis of Granby was a favourite with the likes of T.S Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Virginia Woolf etc. As for the Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese it's patrons included the likes of Dickens, Samuel Johnson, P.G. Wodehouse, Mark Twain, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Samuel Pepys and Arthur Conan Doyle.
Anthony Burgess, the author of A Clockwork Orange drank at the Duke of York in Covent Garden, and apparently witnessed a rather nasty gang land fight in the pub.
Karl Marx and numerous other famous writers could often be found in the British Museum Reading Room and there are some nice old pubs around the Bloomsbury area including the Museum Tavern which Karl Marx was known to frequent.
Other notable figures that frequented the British Museum Reading room included the likes of Sun Yat-sen, Oscar Wilde, Friedrich Hayek, Marcus Garvey, Bram Stoker, Mahatma Gandhi, Rudyard Kipling, George Orwell, George Bernard Shaw, Mark Twain, Vladimir Lenin (using the name Jacob Richter), Virginia Woolf, Arthur Rimbaud, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, H. G. Wells, and Arthur Conan Doyle.
The Golden Lion in Camden was the ‘local’ for the French poets Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud back in 1873.
Whilst Post WW2 artists and bohemians tended to gather around the pubs of Soho, with favourite haunts of the likes of Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud being the Coach and Horses, the French House and the now defunct Colony Room Club.
The artist Francis Bacon was a founder and lifelong member of the Colony Club, and the club attracted a mixture of Soho's low-lifes and its alcoholic, artistic elite, including George Melly, Jeffrey Bernard and Lucian Freud. Visiting non-members included many names from aristocratic, political and artistic circles, including Princess Margaret, William Burroughs, David Bowie and Henri Cartier-Bresson. The club attracted the Young British Artists in the 1990s.
Another favourite of Francis Bacons was the Golden Lion on Dean Street in Soho, which was also a known Soho bar frequented by some of the gay community, and would later became more notorious for being the pub where the serial killer Dennis Nilson picked up several of his rent boy victims. He was found guilty of numerous murder in 1983, with police believing that there were more than 15 victims.
Last edited by Brave New World; 10-07-2023 at 06:22 PM..
There are also lots of pubs linked to various events such as the Jack the Ripper murders, with the Ten Bells and The White Hart having notable links, along with other historic pubs in the area such as the The Princess of Prussia, The Brown Bear, The Princess Alice, The Kings Stores, The Horn of Plenty, The City Darts, The Bell etc.
Whilst the nearby Old Dispensary (now a pub/bar) is notorious for being the building where', Queen Victoria’s surgeon, Sir John Williams, practised medicine, with Williams being suspected of being 'Jack the Ripper'.
Another East End pub with a rather notorious history is The Blind Beggar, which was the location of William Booth's first sermon, which led to the creation of the Salvation Army, as well as where notorios London gangster Ronnie Kray murdered George Cornell. The Kray twins actually also owned the The Carpenters Arms in nearby Spitalfield.
The area around 'The Blind Beggar' is also linked to Joseph Merrick, the so called Elephant Man, with nearby 259 Whitechapel Road, was the surgery practice of Fredrick Treves , whilst across the road is the old entrance to the Royal London Hospital where Treves was a surgeon and where John Merrick lived, making friends with surgeons, nurses, residents, and even being visited by Princess Alexandra in 1887, until his death in 1890, aged just 27.
Other pubs such as the The Hawley Arms, Camden have been notable celebrity hang outs, and where Amy Winehouse even initially worked as a barmaid. The Dublin Castle, Camden being another venue nearby with a similar interesting history, with Camden Town, music venues including the Roundhouse, Dingwalls,the Electric Ballroom and KOKO being nearby.
As for the best pubs in London here's a very recent list from Condé Nast Traveller magazine and written by Euan Ferguson author of Drink London: The 100 Best Bars and Pubs: Refreshed Edition (London Guides).
Wow! I've barely finished reading through the first set of links and now more! I'm overwhelmed with gratitude and appreciate being provided with such an array of pub selections, including historical background. Along with savoury pies, British pub culture cannot be duplicated elsewhere.
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