PUBS

Websites: www.innsignsociety.com www.pubhistorysociety.co.uk

The Blackfriar

The Blackfriar (1875) stands upon the site of what was a Dominican monastery. It is London's only Art Nouveau pub. Its character may derive from Herbert Fuller-Clark (1869-1934) not only being an experienced pub architect but also one who had created a number of music halls

Location: 174 Queen Victoria Street, EC4V 4EG (orange, red)

Website: www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk/restaurants/london/theblackfriarblackfriarslondon

The Board of Green Cloth

The Board of Green Cloth issued alcohol and gaming licences for establishments that operated within royal palaces. The body could also grant them within areas that were within a set distance of any of the royal establishments. It was abolished by the Licensing Act of 2003. The Board had been the last surviving Court of the Royal Prerogative.

Lodged In The Loo

The solicitor David Lavender served as the Clerk of the Board from 1984 to 2000. He was appointed to the position because he had developed an expertise in securing liquor and entertainment licences for West End pubs and restaurants. He had been in frequent conflict with Westminster City Council, which had often opposed many of his clients wishes. Upon one occasion, a licence application had had to be submitted to a court by a particular date. When Mr Lavender had arrived at the appropriate building on the day he had discovered that the establishment had been closed. He had walked around to the back of its premises. There, he had seen that a window of its Gents had been left open. He had thrown the application through the aperture. The following day, upon his arrival at the court, he had directed its one of its clerks to collect the document. Thereby he had been able to validate his assertion that paper had been lodged duly with the body within the required time.

The Castle

In 1751 publicans were banned from taking pledges.

In the early 19^thC the Prince Regent liked to attend cockfights and to bet upon the result of individual clashes. Upon one occasion he went to an event that was staged at The Castle, a pub in Farringdon. He had a bad losing streak. This meant that he ran out of money to wage upon the encounters outcomes. The establishment's landlord lent him some cash to cover his embarrassment. The following day the prince sent a messenger with a sum that paid back the loan. Accompanying it was a royal license that allowed the publican to act as a pawnbroker. This enabled the man to legally take possession of items of value as security for the repayment of money that he lent out to gamblers who found themselves to be temporarily discommoded.

Location: 34-35 Cowcross Street, EC1M 6DB (blue, yellow)

Website: www.thecastlefarringdon.co.uk

The Castles of Camden Town

The Castles of Camden Town were The Dublin Castle, The Edinburgh Castle, The Pembroke Castle, and The Windsor Castle. According to local lore, these were used by navvies from each of the four home countries.

The Windsor Castle was - in an instance of cultural vandalism - renamed The NW1 Bar.

Location: The Dublin Castle, 94 Parkway, NW1 7AN (blue, orange)

The Edinburgh Castle, 57 Mornington Terrace, NW1 7RU (purple, pink)

The Pembroke Castle, 150 Gloucester Avenue, NW1 8JA (blue, brown)

The Windsor Castle, 32 Parkway, NW1 7AH (orange, brown)

Website: https://thedublincastle.com www.edinborocastlepub.co.uk

Commemoration Feasts

Sometimes money would be bequeathed for an individual to be commemorated by an annual feast. This would be held in an inn. In the late 18^thC the artist John Nixon came across one that was being held at The Falcon between Wandsworth and Battersea. The person who was being remembered was a former and the people present fellow practitioners of his trade. The inn's proprietor was one R. Death. Nixon produced a picture of The Merry Undertakers Feasting At Death's Door (1789).

Location: 2 St John's Hill, SW11 1RU

Website: www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk/restaurants/london/thefalconclaphamjunctionlondon

Community-Owned Pubs

The Ivy House

The Ivy House pub in Nunhead was London's first community-owned pub. It was purchased under the Localism Act of 2011.

Location: 40 Stuart Road, Nunhead, SE15 3BE

Website: www.ivyhousenunhead.com

Drunkenness

Under the Licensing Act of 1872, it is illegal to be drunk in a pub.

Food

Gastro-Pubs

The Eagle in Clerkenwell was the first of London's gastro-pubs.

Location: 159 Farringdon Road, EC1R 3AL (red, pink)

Website: https://theeaglefarringdon.co.uk

Veganism

In 2018 The Spread Eagle in Homerton became London's first vegan pub.

Location: 224 Homerton High Street, E9 6AS

See Also: VEGETARIANISM & VEGANISM

Website: www.thespreadeaglelondon.co.uk

The French House

In 1914 Victor Berlemont, a Belgian, bought The Wine House. He renamed the business Maison Berlemont and subsequently The York Minster. The pub's clientele has included General de Gaulle. Following m. Berlemont's death in the 1950s his son Gaston succeeded him as the establishment's landlord. Both p re et fils sported fine handlebar moustaches.

The French was unusual for a pub in that it stocked and sold absinthe, arrack, and pastis. The reason why the establishment only sells beer in half pint glasses is because there is so little room behind the bar.

Berlemont fils retired in 1989 - on 14 July.

In 2020, in the wake of the Covid pandemic, The French House sold beer in pint glasses in order to minimise contact between serving staff and customers.

Location: 49 Dean Street, W1D 5BG (turquoise, pink)

Gin Palaces

During the 1820s it came to be appreciated that the new technology of gas lighting could be used to make pubs more attractive places to be in at night. The first gin palaces are reputed to have been Thompson & Fearon s in Holborn and Weller s on Old Street.

The Punch Tavern, 99 Fleet Street, EC4Y 1DE (purple, red)

Website: www.punchtavern.com www.redlionmayfair.co.uk www.pubheritage.camra.org.uk/pubs/national-inventory2.asp www.princesslouisepub.co.uk

The Bride of Denmark

The Architectural Press published The Architects Journal and the Architectural Review. The basement of the enterprise's Queen Anne's Gate building contained The Bride of Denmark, a pastiche Victorian pub that Hubert de Cronin Hastings (1902-1986), the firm s proprietor, had built himself (in part).¹ He intended that The Bride should be an inspiration for contemporary architects who were designing pubs in the then prevalent Festival of Britain style. It proved to be popular with those members of the profession who relished a drink, notably Cedric Price (1934-2003) and Big Jim Stirling (1926-1992). Sir Osbert Lancaster (1908-1986), who was associated with the Press, coined the term gin palace to describe ornate Victorian pubs.

Location: 9-13 Queen Anne's Gate, SW1H 9DP (red, turquoise)

See Also: ARCHITECTURE

Website: www.architecturalpress.com

¹. Ideas that originated from Hastings and his associates included townscape. This sought to look at the whole composition of a town rather than just the design of individual buildings.

The Italian Job

Location: 130 Cadogan Terrace, Hackney Wick, E9 5HP

13 Devonshire Road, Chiswick, W4 2EU

42 Newington Causeway, SE1 6DR

Website: https://theitalianjobpub.co.uk

Licensing

In 1839 the first Sunday closing law was passed.

The First World War's Defence of The Realm Act (Dora) limited opening hours.

Monday Clubs

When pubs closed in the afternoon, Monday Clubs were all-day drinking sessions in which there would often be entertainment. Those participating were people who had worked over the weekend or who did not feel like going into work.

The Morpeth Arms

The Bill that was to establish the Millbank Penitentiary included provision that would have barred there being any licensed establishments near the prison so that there was no possibility of the warders being drunk on duty. In the Commons Lord Morpeth opposed the measure. That is why there is a The Morpeth Arms near The Tate.

Location: 58 Millbank, SW1P 4RW (orange, purple)

Website: www.morpetharms.com

Names

Nautical

The pubs names of Rotherhithe were intended to resonate with maritime workers: The Cape of Good Hope, The Providence Island, and The Jamaica Inn.

Nicknames

Pubs are often known to locals by a nickname. The Country House by Earlsfield Railway Station is known as The Fog. This because it used to be enveloped by steam from trains that had pulled into the station. The conductor Thomas Beecham called The George The Glue Pot because the musicians from The Queen's Hall would go there during the interval and need fetching back.

Location: 2 Groton Road, Earlsfield, SW18 4EP

55 Great Portland Street W1W 7LQ (red, pink)

Website: www.thecountryhouseearlsfield.co.uk https://thegeorge.london

Fleet Street Nicknames

For most of the later 20^thC the newspaper industry had a hard drinking culture. The Observer's local on Fleet Street was known as Auntie's. The White Hart by the Mirror Building was known as The Stab In The Back because it was where Mirror managers would take journalists for a drink when they were going to tell them they were sacked. The White Swan was known as The Mucky Duck.

In 1974 The Times newspaper moved from Printing House Square to the Gray's Inn Road. The journalists who had worked in the former became known within the paper as the Black Friars . This commemorated The Black Friar, where they had drunk.

Location: The Blackfriar, 174 Queen Victoria Street, EC4V 4EG (orange, red)

The White Hart, 3 New Fetter Lane, EC4A 3BN (red, turquoise)

The White Swan, 108 Fetter Lane, EC4A 1ES (blue, yellow)

Website: www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk/restaurants/london/theblackfriarblackfriarslondon

Pub Names

Ball's Pond Road

In the late 17^thC John Ball was the landlord of The Mitre & Staff. The pond was an attraction in the pub s grounds.

Location: Ball's Pond Road, N1 4AP

The Black Lion

A number of districts in London derive their names from inns or pubs. The process sometimes worked in reverse. Queensway, above the north-western section of Kensington Gardens is a road that received its moniker from Queen Victoria. She had been raised nearby in Kensington Palace. Following her accession to the throne she made it known that she thought that the name Queen's Road was more appropriate than Black Lion Lane (The Black Lion being a pub on the eastern side of the lane's junction with the Bayswater Road).

Location: 123 Bayswater Road, W2 3JH (purple, blue)

Queensway, W2 3RR (purple, yellow)

Renaming

The Cardinal

In 2011 it was reported that Samuel Smith's wished to change the name of The Cardinal in Westminster to The Windsor Castle, which was its original name. The Archbishop of Westminster opposed this development.

Location: 23 Francis Street, SW1P 1DN (purple, yellow)

The Spiller's Head

James Spiller (d.1729) was a painter who became an actor. He created the role of Mat of the Mint in The Beggar's Opera (1728). He was incarcerated in debtors prison on a number of occasions. During one of these he so charmed one of the guards that when he was released the man resigned from his job and became the landlord of The Bull & Butcher pub in Clare Market so that he could continue to enjoy the thespian s conversation. The actor became a regular and others flocked to enjoy his company. It was suggested that the establishment should have a less vulgar name (its nickname was The Old Slaughterers). The former turnkey renamed it The Spiller's Head.

Location: Clare Market, WC2A 4AD (orange, purple)

The Prospect of Whitby

The pub that became The Prospect of Whitby was extant in the 17^thC. It took its present name in 1777 from a ship called The Prospect that had come from Whitby. This had been moored upon the Thames nearby long enough to have become a 'land'mark.

Location: 57 Wapping Wall, E1W 3SH (red, purple)

Pub Signs

The Romans used a wreath of vine leaves as a pub sign. This turned into a shrub, which metamorphosed into names such as The Yew Tree and The Bush.

In 1393 King Richard II passed a law that required inns to identify themselves to the official Ale Taster by having signs.

The Sloaney Pony

Sally Cruickshank had a somewhat varied working life. In 1981 she decided that she wanted to run a pub. She took over The White Horse on Parson's Green. Prior to her doing so she was warned that the establishment was a rough house. This was because two rival amateur soccer teams both regarded the hostelry as being their local. The presence of undesirables did not trouble her. As far as she was concerned, by the time that she had turned the premises into what she intended to no one would even notice them.

The bitters that were being offered were switched from keg beers to real ales. She started serving good quality food early in London's gastro-pub boom and ensured that The Horse had a varied, affordable cellar of wines. The pub began not only to attract far more customers than had been the case previously, it also drew them in from a wider social spectrum. The high proportion of drinkers with R.P. (received pronunciation) and marked R.P. accents led to it being nicknamed The Sloaney Pony . The moniker blended a measure affection with a degree of derision.

Mrs Cruickshank retired as The Horse's landlady in 1995. At the time, members of Dauntless Athletic, one of the two teams of undesirables, were still drinking in the pub.

Location: 1-3 Parson's Green, SW6 4UL

See Also: CLASS Sloane Rangers

Website: www.whitehorsesw6.com

The Star Tavern

Paddy Kennedy was a noted landlord of The Star. He had a soft spot for the underworld hard man-cum-bit part actor John Bindon (1943-1993). Kennedy allowed Bindon to rent a small house in Chesham Mews that was attached to the pub. In the thespian-thug's later years, his alcoholic older brother Michael would sometimes stay at the property. One winter night, while his younger sib was elsewhere, Michael died of hypothermia. Subsequently, John returned. According to some of the thespian's associates, he slung his brother s corpse over his shoulder. He then walked into The Star with the body, lent it against the bar, and declared, We re having a wake!

Location: 6 Belgrave Mews, SW1X 8HT (orange, yellow)

Website: www.star-tavern-belgravia.co.uk

The Wheatsheaf

Location: 6 Stoney Street, SE1 9AA

Website: www.wheatsheafborough.co.uk

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

Ye Olde Cheshire Cleese is a pub that was rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1666. It was one of Dr Samuel Johnson s (d.1784) favourite haunts.

Location: Wine Office Court, 145 Fleet Street, EC4A 2BU (red, grey)

Website: https://ye-olde-cheshire-cheese.co.uk

David Backhouse 2024