On this ride we visit some of London's most famous pubs.  13 miles, starting at Hyde Park Corner and ending at The Horseshoe pub, London Bridge.

 

The route​ (opens in a new window)

Route starts at Hyde Park Corner

 

STOP: Star Tavern, Belgravia

LOCATION: Halkin Place

 

The Star Tavern in Belgravia has seen its share of well-heeled visitors since it was built in the early 19th century, including Peter O’Toole and Diana Dors who both drank here. Indeed this is one of the pubs where the stars of the day enjoying mixing with London’s villains.

 

However, it is most noted for its role in one of the most colourful – and notorious – episodes in 20th century England. 

 

The grand upstairs room was where in 1963 the Great Train Robbers hatched their plan to attack the mail train. Bruce Reynolds, the ringleader, would drive up from south-west London in his Aston Martin, park outside and head upstairs to flesh out the details of the £2.6m heist (about £50m in today’s prices). 

 

The train robbers stopped the Glasgow to London mail train north of London by turning off a green track signal and, with batteries, turning on a red signal. The train’s fireman went to investigate and was captured, unharmed; the driver was severely injured by a blow on the head. The 15 robbers took about 120 mail bags by Land Rovers to their farm hideaway, where they divided it amongst themselves. 

 

Subsequently the accomplice hired to burn down the farmhouse but did such a poor job that the police found everyone’s fingerprints. 

 

With this and other evidence, 12 of the 15 robbers were caught, convicted, and sent to prison (none serving more than 13 years). 

 

One, Ronnie Biggs, escaped from prison in 1965, had his face altered by plastic surgery, and fled first to Paris, then to Australia, and finally to Brazil. In 2001 Biggs returned to the UK and was rearrested.  He died in 2013.

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STOP: The Grenadier, Belgravia

LOCATION: Wilton Row

 

Originally known as The Guardsman this pub was built in 1720 as the officer’s mess for the adjoining Foot Guards barracks. It was renamed in around 1820 in recognition of the Grenadier Guards actions at Waterloo.

 

It’s only a small bar. And as you’d expect, there’s plenty of military memorabilia.

 

Clientele include a sprinkling of celebrities, think the likes of Brad Pitt and Lady Gaga who have both frequented the place.  It was here the the billionaire Jim Ratcliffe came up with a new car concept over a few pints with some friends. The 4x4 was called the INEOS Grenadier, which of course also gave its name to the pro cycling team. 

 

And it is one of most haunted pubs in London. In the early 18th century a Grenadier officer called Cedric was caught cheating at cards.  Poor Cedric was beaten by the other officers and unfortunately died when he fell down the cellar stairs.  Since then Cedric has been blamed for unexplained events like shifting furniture, lights turning on/off, and cold spots.  

 

So, in order to keep Cedric happy the tradition is to affix bank notes to the ceiling to pay off Cedric’s debt.  

 

 

STOP: The Sherlock Holmes

LOCATION: Northumberland Street, just off Northumberland Avenue

 

This pub is a long way from Sherlock’s home in Baker Street, so how come it is called the Sherlock Holmes?

 

Well, it has the most authentic recreation of Holmes’ study - a display originally put together for Festival of Britain in 1951, which was bought by the pub owners after the festival ended and prompted the pub’s renaming. You can see Sherlock’s study behind a glass screen half way up the stairs. That probably makes it the oldest ‘themed’ pub in London.

 

Built in 1870 originally as a small hotel called The Northumberland Arms, it features

in The Hound of the Baskervilles, which may be where the owners got the idea to turn it into the Sherlock Holmes. Indeed, the Turkish bath that Holmes and Watson used was next door at number 25. And the entrance to women’s baths can still be seen in Craven Passage which we’ll be passing shortly.

 

The pub is set back from Northumberland Avenue.  The road was built in the 1870s to accommodate new large, luxury hotels. But Victorian planning regulations stated that buildings could be no taller than the width of the road.  So they built a wide road!

 

 

STOP: Ship and Shovell, Charing Cross

LOCATION: Craven Passage, off Craven Street

 

This is a Victorian pub, built into what were formerly two terraced houses dating from 1731.  The buildings were refaced when it became a pub.

 

It is unique in London as it consists of two separate buildings on either side of street

One half is classical Victorian (all mirrors and shining brass), whereas the other half is nautical - wood panelling, ship’s timbers, crow’s nest bar above.  They do however, share a cellar. 

 

There is some dispute about the origin of the name as originally ‘shovel’ was spelt with one ‘L’ and it’s thought it was named after the local coal labourers and merchants who used to drink here.  

 

However, it’s name now remembers Admiral Cloudesley Shovell, with an additional ‘L’.

 

Shovell was Admiral of the Fleet during reign of Charles II, but his lasting fame comes from his incompetence as a military commander.  

 

Basically, he got lost bringing the fleet home from campaigning in Toulon in 1707 and was shipwrecked off the isles of Scilly.  Four large ships, including the flagship HMS Association sank, and with almost 2,000 sailors lost it goes down as one of the greatest disasters in British naval history. Legend has it that a local deck hand from Scilly tried to warn Shovell that the fleet was off course but Shovell had him hanged at the yardarm for inciting mutiny!

 

 

STOP: The Seven Stars

LOCATION: Carey Street

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A very old pub, which dates from 1602, the Seven Stars survived the Great Fire, but this building is more likely 1680s.  So, this pub was originally built when Elizabeth I was on the throne!  The interior of the pub is Victorian, however, the incredibly narrow stairs up to the toilet do feel feel very Elizabethan!

 

Indeed it has led a charmed life as it also escaped demolition for the building of Kingsway and Alwych to the west, and the Royal Courts of Justice to the south.

 

It is in the parish of St Clement Danes (Vikings) and indeed there is a rare stone parish boundary marker just a few metres from the pub.  

 

The name is believed to have derived from the "The League of Seven Stars" - referring to the seven provinces of the Netherlands, and was thought to have at one time been called "The Leg and Seven Stars”. 

 

The Dutch connection stems from a time when this area was used as a port (the nearby, and now covered, River Fleet was navigable), and Dutch sailors settled close by. 

 

As you can tell from the windows, the pub is popular with the legal profession, being on the edge of Lincoln’s Inn.  Lincoln’s Inn has been here since at least the 15th century.  Records go back to 1422.  And they settled here and in the other inns of court because Henry III hated lawyers and decreed in 1234 that legal institutes could not reside within The City walls. 

 

The licensee of the pub is the wonderfully named Roxy Beaujolais, who is a bit of a legend in Soho, having run various well-known London places, including front of house at Ronnie Scott’s.  And there’s also the pub cat, which hangs around in the bar and is known for wearing a ruff. I believe the current cat is called The General. 

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TOILETS IN LINCOLN'S INN

 

 

STOP: Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

LOCATION: Fleet Street

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A Fleet Street landmark and one of the oldest pubs in the City. The pub dates from 1538, but the original burnt down in the Great Fire of 1666. It was re-built shortly after and is still largely unchanged.

 

The pub has many literary connections, including Dickens (of course), Chesterton, Mark Twain and Wodehouse who were all regular visitors. Poirot dined here in 1924 in Agatha Christie’s Million Dollar Bond Robbery story.

 

You can get a real sense of what 17th century buildings were like inside as there’s a curious lack of natural lighting. And although some of the wood panelling is 19th century, some is probably original.

 

A 1680 ballad called A New Ballad of the Midwives Ghost tells a fantastical story of how a midwife haunted the house where she died until she was able to induce the new residents to dig up the bones of some bastard children she had made away with and buried under the pub. The final lines of the ballad insist the tale is true and even that the children's bones may be seen for proof displayed at the Cheshire Cheese. They’re not here now though.

 

There was another fire in the early 1960s which damaged the upper stories. As part of the refurbishment a number of sexually explicit plaster of Paris relief tiles dating from around the mid 1700s were discovered.  

 

Among the more notable scenes depicted are one of a woman whipping a man’s naked buttocks with a bundle of twigs while another woman kneels in front of him; and one of a woman in a basket on a rope, lowering herself onto a man on his back underneath her.  

 

In the 18th century, these kinds of materials were relatively common, if you had the money to buy them. Moulded plaster reliefs were not expensive to produce, but the erotic subject matter would have jacked up the price considerably. Very few of these erotic artefacts from this time have survived and the ones from here are now in the Museum of London.

 

It’s not clear why the pub was so spicily decorated upstairs. One possibility is that Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese had a little side business as a brothel. Or they could have adorned a gentleman’s club room. 

 

Of course, we can’t come to the Cheshire Cheese without mentioning Polly.

 

Polly has been resident here since the 19th century; first as a living, swearing parrot and latterly as a stuffed ornament in the front bar.  In the early 20th century, he was the most famous bird in the world. (Yes, it’s a ‘he’ despite the name Polly).

 

Polly was a talking parrot, and his fame rested on his foul tongue. We do not know the actual words he used because rude words were seldom printed in those days. But almost every account of his life at the Cheese mentions his ‘Army language’ or ‘crude chatter’.

 

The African Grey had arrived in London from the west coast of Africa some time in the 1880s, taking up residence at the Cheese from about 1886.

 

The bird was allowed free reign of the place, hopping along the ancient beams and landing on customers’ chairs. Polly quickly developed a reputation for colourful speech, presumably picking it up from pub customers.

 

His most famous trick of all, though, was to imitate the sound of a cork popping out of a bottle, and the subsequent glug of claret hitting glass. On armistice night in 1918, Polly supposedly did this impression so many times that he fainted.

 

And in the summer of 1905, Polly, embarked on a series of unlikely adventures, escaping from the pub twice.  The first time he was soon recaptured just up the road near Holborn Viaduct. A few weeks later he did it again. This time he stayed away for several weeks. The head waiter, a well-known character called ‘Poor Tom’ was apparently inconsolable and a handsome reward was offered. But Polly eventually found his own way back home in the October. 

 

Aside from a two-day trip to London Zoo in 1910, and an oblivious spell at the taxidermist, he hasn’t left the Cheese since.

 

Polly was much missed when he died, aged 40, on 30 October 1926. His passing was noted not just in the local newspapers but around 200 periodicals all over the world.

 

 

STOP: Ye Olde Mitre

LOCATION: Ely Place (hidden down an alley)

 

Ely Place is a corner of Old London that will be forever Cambridgeshire. That’s because it is the site of the 13th century Ely Palace, the home of the Bishops of Ely. When it was first built it was deemed too beautiful to belong to London. So the bishops declared it part of Cambridgeshire and incredibly it stayed that way until the 1960s.

 

Indeed, until late 1950s, the lodges at the entrance were occupied by Cambridgeshire police.  And until the 1960s, the publican of Ye Old Mitre had to go to Cambridge for the licence.

 

The pub was built in 1546 for the servants of the bishops, and some parts pre-date the Great Fire.  However, it was extensively remodelled between 1773 and 1782 and internally remodelled in 1930s.

 

The front window is supported internally by the remains of a cherry tree.  Elizabeth I danced round this tree as when it was alive it was in Sir Christopher Hatton’s garden, on which this area is built on.  Hatton was one of her ‘favourites’ -  a politician, Lord Chancellor, and one of the judges who found Mary Queen of Scots guilty of treason.  Indeed he is remembered in the name of the area - Hatton Garden.

 

Shakespeare’s John of Gaunt makes his famous ‘This Sceptered Isle” speech from Shakespeare’s Richard II here. 

 

John of Gaunt would have made a strong king but had little chance of a crack at the throne. However, he wielded a lot of influence and eventually became father to a king himself (Henry IV). But he was harsh and greedy and was hated by the people. 

 

So when Wat Tyler staged his Peasants’ Revolt in 1381, he attacked John of Gaunt’s magnificent house down near the river –  the Savoy Palace – and John suddenly found himself homeless. However he managed to call in a few favours and decamped to the Bishop of Ely’s Palace here in Ely Place.

 

Ye Olde Mitre is often touted as the hardest pub in London to find, and you can see why. 

 

However, it is an urban myth that criminals would be out of reach here from the Met or City of London police.

 

 

STOP: The Viaduct Tavern

LOCATION: Junction of Holborn Viaduct and Giltspur Street

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Opened the same year (1869) as the viaduct from which it gets its name, The Viaduct Tavern is one of the last surviving Victorian gin palaces in London.  It’s also one of the best examples of the style.

 

It’s far more than a public house — it’s an example of how architecture and commerce responded to a serious social crisis. The emergence of gin palaces in the 1830s marked a deliberate and strategic shift away from the chaos and degradation of the 18th century’s Gin Craze, a time when cheap, unregulated spirits brought addiction, moral panic, and deep public concern.

 

Gin had earned the nickname “Mother’s Ruin,” and it was widely associated with crime, infant mortality, and the crumbling of working-class households. 

 

The government responded with a series of increasingly strict laws known as the Gin Acts which taxed gin, restricted sales, and regulated licensing. These measures, combined with a shift in taste towards beer, curbed the worst excesses.

 

However, it was not until the early 19th century that gin underwent a more sophisticated rehabilitation. Improvements in distilling technology made the spirit purer and less dangerous. At the same time, the rising middle and aspirational working classes — the product of the Industrial Revolution — sought venues that reflected their sense of propriety and self-respect.

 

This is where the gin palace played its role. It was not just a place to drink; it was a place to be seen drinking respectably. Designed to dazzle, gin palaces borrowed elements from theatre lobbies and department stores, with brightly lit interiors thanks to newly introduced gas lighting. High ceilings, vast mirrors, and etched-glass panels created a sense of space and splendour. The mahogany counters stretched the full length of the room, often accommodating dozens of customers at once, and uniformed staff added an air of formality.

 

Of course, the pub is opposite the Old Bailey which itself stands on the site of the Newgate Prison.  There is an oft quoted story that the pub's beer cellars are former cells of the prison. This is almost certainly a myth. However it is built on the site of the Giltspur Street Compter, which was a debtors’ prison.

 

The Giltspur Street Compter was one of several small prisons in the City of London used for detaining debtors and minor offenders. It operated from the late 18th century until its closure in the mid-19th century. It was designed not for hard labour but for containment — a place to hold men awaiting hearings, repayment, or transfer to larger institutions, such as Newgate prison opposite.

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STOP: The Bishops Finger

LOCATION: West side of Smithfield

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A favourite local for Smithfield Market traders and customers, the Bishops Finger has been here since 1890.  However, the Bishops Finger name dates from 1981. Prior to that it was The Rutland. 

 

The pub was bought by Shepherd Neame in the 1970s, and they named the pub after one of their leading beers. The ruby-coloured Kent classic beer is itself named after the finger-shaped signs that pointed Medieval pilgrims in the direction of Canterbury Cathedral where they’d find the shrine of Thomas Becket, the martyred Archbishop of Canterbury (1170). There’s a corresponding Bishops Finger pub at the other end of the pilgrimage in Canterbury.

 

Prior to being street signs, the Bishops Finger was the name given to the shape of the hand when giving a blessing.

 

There must have been an establishment on this site prior to the 1890 build. Newspaper reports of a Rutland in West Smithfield include an advert in the Clerkenwell News on the 19th October 1864 for “Two clean and respectable girls wanted, 16 or 18, used to a Coffee House. Must be able to wash. The Rutland, Smithfield”.  

 

The Rutland was probably a coffee house before changing to a hotel and pub, likely when the new building was built. The Duke of Rutland was a frequent exhibitor of cattle at Smithfield and the Rutland Agricultural Society were frequently here promoting the their produce. That’s the likely origin of the name.

 

 

STOP: Dirty Dicks

LOCATION: Gracechurch Street, junction with Middlesex Street (opposite Liverpool Street station)

 

During the early 19th century, Dirty Dick’s was called The Old Jerusalem, but it was renamed after an infamous resident who owned a warehouse around the corner from the pub.

 

The original Dirty Dick, whose actual name was Nathaniel Bentley, but also known as Richard (hence Dick), was a prosperous city merchant living in the middle of the 18th century.

 

Bentley owned a hardware shop and warehouse just round the corner and had been quite the dandy in his youth, but following the death of his fiancée on the day of his wedding (but before the service took place), in his broken-hearted anguish, he refused to clean anything, including himself. 

 

Such was the legend of the Dirty Dick, that he is said to be the inspiration for Miss Havisham in Charles Dickens’ ‘Great Expectations’.  Dickens is said to have frequented the pub, but then is there any pub in London that doesn’t claim to have been frequented by Dickens.

 

Bentley’s house, shop, and warehouse became so filthy that he became a ‘celebrity of dirt’. He became so famous for his lack of cleanliness that letters intended for him would be addressed to ‘The Dirty Warehouse, London’. Bentley eventually stopped trading in 1804 and died in 1809. His warehouse was later demolished.

 

William Barker’s The Old Jerusalem Pub soon took on the character as well as the name of Dirty Dick and was described in 1866 as: “A small public house or rather the tap of a wholesale wine and spirit business… a warehouse or barn without floorboards; a low ceiling, with festoons of cobwebs dangling from the black rafters; a pewter bar battered and dirty, floating with beer, numberless gas pipes tied anyhow along the struts and posts to conduct the spirits from the barrels to the taps; sample phials and labelled bottles of wine and spirits on shelves, everything covered with virgin dust and cobwebs.”

 

It seems that successive owners of the Bishopsgate Distillery and its tap capitalised on the legend. By the end of the 19th century, the owner was producing commemorative booklets and promotional material to advertise the pub.

 

For years the cobwebs, dead cats, and other unusual features of Dirty Dicks were kept in the cellar bar, but these have now been tidied away.

 

 

STOP: The Old Doctor Butler's Head

LOCATION: Mason's Avenue, off Coleman Street

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The Old Doctor Butler’s Head was originally established in 1610, with the present building dating back to just after the Great Fire of London in 1666.

 

The pub transports you back into Stuart-era London. With its black frontage and swan neck lamps lighting up the doorway it exudes character.

 

But who was Doctor William Butler?  Well, he was either a pioneering physician or a brilliant con artist. Probably both. And he was also a big fan of pubs.

 

Born in Suffolk in 1535 he was granted a licence to practise medicine after graduating from Clare College, Cambridge. This was somewhat surprising since he held an arts degree.

 

Until the age of 68 Butler quietly plied his trade from an apothecary’s shop in Cambridge. Here he lived with a servant called Nell whose chief job was to drag him out of the pub every night after he’d had a skinful. But the elderly quack was abruptly forced out of obscurity when he performed a miracle cure on a local clergyman. 

 

The afflicted man of the cloth had fallen into an opium-induced coma and been given up for dead. But Dr Butler acted promptly and slaughtered a cow, placing the senseless clergyman inside the “cowe’s warme belly” to cure him. Amazingly, it worked – though how the parson reacted on waking up inside a cow is anyone’s guess.

 

This remarkable feat attracted the attention of the court. And in 1614 James I called on Dr Butler to attend him when he sustained a hunting injury at Newmarket. The monarch must have been mightily impressed with his treatment because soon after that the doctor was appointed to the post of court physician.

 

Butler headed to London and continued to blithely practise his own peculiar brand of medicine using increasingly weird and unconventional techniques. 

 

His cure for epilepsy, for instance, was to shoot a couple of firearms close to the patient’s head to scare the condition out of him. And his acclaimed cold-water remedy for the ague (fever) was even more bizarre – he simply pushed the patient into the Thames from old London Bridge.

 

However, his piece de resistance was in combining two of his favourite things – medicine and booze – to create a “purging ale” that consisted of aniseed, caraway, liquorice and strong beer. Whether this cured anything or not is unknown but it’s quite likely some degree of purging took place after drinking it. In any case, Doctor Butler’s ale became so successful that he acquired a chain of pubs of which this is the last. 

 

Sadly, Dr Butler’s Purging Ale is no longer available on tap.

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STOP: The Black Friar

LOCATION: North end of Blackfriars Bridge

 

Built in 1875, the pub is fairly modern despite its medieval styling.  It was remodelled in 1905.

 

The name of the Black Friar refers to it being on the site of the former Black Friars priory. When friars first appeared in medieval England they were something of a novelty since unlike monks (who were cloistered in monasteries) they travelled around, spreading the word in exchange for money to sustain themselves. 

 

There were two main groups of friars in early 13th century London – the Franciscans who were invariably dressed in grey, and the Dominicans whose long black mantles earned them the name the Black Friars. These were later joined by the Carmelites, or the White Friars and the Augustinians, otherwise known as the Austin Friars. 

 

Anyway, the pub is Grade II listed and is the only Art Nouveau pub in London which means it has plenty of historical merit despite not actually being old. 

 

In the 1960s when iconic buildings were being flattened left right and centre, the Black Friar was among those scheduled to be demolished. However, the poet Sir John Betjeman stepped in and led a campaign to keep it.

 

It has an extraordinary interior - the walls are covered in mosaics and reliefs of the Dominican Friars going about their daily tasks, while a splendid stained-glass window allows a rainbow of light to filter into the room.  It’s well worth returning for a drink or two.

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STOP: Doggetts

LOCATION: South end of Blackfriars Bridge, on the west side

 

This pub opened in 1977.  It was built during the boom of brutalist architecture, which included the nearby National Theatre, and the Barbican estate, both completed about the same time.

 

It was built during a full scale redevelopment of this area, and replaced the Cross Keys and Railway Hotel, which had been there since at least 1851, when the railways arrived.

 

It gets its name from the longest running sporting event in British history, Doggett’s Coat and Badge race between the Watermen and Lightermen companies - the traditional water taxis taking passengers and goods across the river

 

Doggett’s Coat and Badge race redates Oxford v Cambridge by 114 years and is the oldest rowing race in the world.

 

Irishman Thomas Doggett was an MP, actor, comedian and manager of the Drury Lane theatre.

 

In 1715, he needed a wherry home from The City to Chelsea. That was a quite a way, and upstream too, and only one boy volunteered. From then on Doggett only used that boy and when asked why he said it was because he was the fittest and the fastest of the wherrymen.

 

Bets were placed that no-one could beat him from Swan Pier (London Bridge) to The Swan Pub (Chelsea).  A distance of over four miles.

 

The boy won and was given a new scarlet uniform as a prize. The race between newly qualified watermen and lightermen has taken place every year since.

 

There are no rules - but the Fishmongers Company took over the organisation of the race and set some regulations after the Watermen were caught cheating.  Huge sums of money used to be bet and foul play was common.

 

Originally the race was on 1 August against the tide.  Since 1873, it’s held in late July to coincide with incoming tide.

 

Originally competitors used four seater passenger wherries (which could take four hours to complete the course). Nowadays contemporary sculling boats are used.   30 minutes is about the time taken now.  The winner still gets a red coat which is presented at a formal dinner at the Fishmonger’s Livery Hall.

 

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STOP: Boot and Flogger, Southwark

LOCATION: Redcross Way

 

Davy’s story begins in 1870 when they opened the Rising Sun ‘wine house’ just off the Strand, an area booming with new restaurants and theatres following the arrival of the railways. The business grew slowly until the 1960s.

 

1964 saw the birth of what would become the UK wine bar phenomenon, thanks to 4th generation chairman, John Davy. He recognised the country’s growing interest in wine and opened this pub, cleverly using his status as a freeman and member of the Worshipful Company of Vintners to exploit ‘Vintners’ Privilege’ which got around the all-powerful breweries who tried to stop him obtaining a license.

 

Vintner’s privilege was the authority to sell wine without a license in the City of London, along the route to Dover, Berwick, and in certain other ports. The bars could not sell beer or spirits.

 

The right of Free Vintners to legally sell wine without a magistrate's license was solidified by James I in a royal charter 1611. It continued in limited areas, such as around here.  The Boot and Flogger was was the last wine bar to use this exemption until it was phased out in 2006 as part of modernising the licensing laws.

 

Name of the pub is a reference to the wine corking method.  A leather ‘boot’ holds the bottle whilst the cork is ‘flogged’ in.

 

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STOP: The George Inn, Southwark

LOCATION: George Inn Yard, Borough High Street just before Borough Market

 

We’re in Southwark and The George Inn is the only remaining galleried coaching inn in London of the many that once serviced the numerous coaches and wagons that connected the city with the rest of the country. It is Grade 1 listed.  Another coaching inn survives (The White Hart) just north of here, but it’s not galleried.

 

The George survives thanks to the London and North Eastern Railway. Although they did demolish large parts of the original buildings leaving only the south side of the complex.  They sold to the National Trust in 1937, who continue to own the property with it currently being leased to Greene King.

 

The George dates back to at least the 16th century. It was mentioned by the great historian John Stowe in 1598 as one of the “fair inns” of London and it can be seen on the first map of Southwark which dates from 1543.

 

It was originally called the St. George, and has also been known as St George and the Dragon, but because of changes in sentiment towards religious iconography, Popery and saints, the inn became the George in the mid 16th century.

 

A large fire in 1676 burnt through much of Southwark and totally destroyed the George, but it was rebuilt the following year by the tenant who had his annual rent reduced to £50 and a sugar loaf.

 

In 1825, the George is recorded as being “a good commercial inn in the Boro High Street; well known, whence several coaches and many wagons depart laden with the merchandise of the metropolis, in return for which they bring back from various parts of Kent, that staple article of the country, the hop, to which we are indebted for the good quality of the London porter”.

 

The location of the George Inn was key to its early success.  It was one of many inns located in courtyards along the main road that led south from London Bridge.

 

In those days the road was the main one from the City of London to the southern counties of England. The area was outside the control of the City of London, there was more land available and rents were cheaper than on the other side of London Bridge. And also the gates to the old London Bridge were closed at night, so travellers who arrived late needed somewhere to stay until they could enter The City the next morning.

 

Catching a coach from one of the Inns in Southwark was the equivalent of walking across London Bridge today and catching a train at London Bridge Station.

 

The coming of the railways saw a rapid decline in travel by horse and coach, and the site became a receiving station for goods to be transported over the rail network, which was in many ways a logical continuation of the main transport function of the inn.

 

Inns like this are probably where the art of theatre began - travelling players would ‘perform to the gallery’.

 

Today, it is a tourist hot spot.

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STOP: Kings Arms

LOCATION: Newcommen Street

 

Like many of the streets and alleys of Southwark, Newcommen Street developed from an inn yard, the yard of ‘The Axe’, later the ‘Axe and Bottle’.  The Axe is first mentioned in Southwark manor records of 1560.

 

What’s interesting here is not the pub, but the coat of arms on the north wall. This is a finely detailed piece of sculpture and you don't have to look too close to see that the lion and the unicorn are what, in the language of heraldry, is known as 'pizzled', a quite common sight on coats of arms until the Victorians arrived and decided this was little too risque.

 

This coat of arms was added to Stonegate, at the southern end of Old London Bridge as part of some construction work in 1728. It was only there for about 30 years though as all the buildings on the bridge, including Stonegate, were demolished around 1760 so the road could be widened.  The coat of arms was rescued and re-erected here on an earlier building.  

 

Either the pub was already called the "King's Arms" and wanted the coat of arms because it was a ready-made sign, or, they were so delighted with the acquisition that they renamed the pub in celebration.  Nobody knows. The current building was erected in 1890. It's possible that the earlier building just had a Victorian front tacked on the front to update it.

 

The Kings Arms had a reputation as one of the pubs frequented by the navy pressgangs.  

 

Pressgangs were legally employed to recruit “volunteers” to tool up and head out to sea to do battle. And the pressmen didn’t ask nicely: they would threaten, force or bludgeon their recruits into submission. When all that bludgeoning became hard work, they would try another tack and slip a coin into the victim’s pocket or better still, his drink. Then the hapless sailor-to-be would have officially “taken the King’s shilling” which constituted a simple but brutal contract.  And this is one of the reasons old style tankards would have a glass bottom - so the drinker could spot the ‘king’s shilling’ before taking a sup.

 

The King’s Arms was a popular target, ideally placed as it was so close to the Thames. It is also a particularly shallow-fronted pub notably lacking in nooks, which made able-bodied men easier to spot. In fact, so notorious was the King’s Arms as a magnet for bludgeon-wielding pressgangs that it still bears the nickname “The Carbolic” after the type of soap routinely employed to scrub down the blood-sodden floor. 

 

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STOP: Thomas A Beckett (now Viet Quan Vietnamese restaurant)

LOCATION: Albany Road, junction with Old Kent Road

 

This is the only pub on our tour that is no longer a working pub.  

 

It sits on the Old Kent Road along what was the roman Road Watling Street. It was built in 1898, but has been a stopping point for travellers for centuries.

 

The pub got its name because it is next to St Thomas-a-Waterings, a stream and pond which marked the extremity of the Arch Bishop of Canterbury’s authority. This spot was used for executions, including of those from the Marshalsea prison, and the displaying of the bodies in gibbets - the last execution here was in 1740.

 

London to Canterbury was a very popular pilgrimage because it was a fairly short, safe and cheap pilgrimage developed following the death of the martyr Thomas A Beckett in 1170. And St Thomas-a-Waterings became a regular resting place along the route.  It is mentioned in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.

 

On the first floor of the Thomas a Beckett was a gym where Sir Henry Cooper former British, European and Commonwealth Heavyweight Champion trained six days a week for fourteen years from 1954. Mohammed Ali, three time World Heavy Weight Champion and Olympic Champion also visited the gym here.  Ali met the body builder and actor David Prowse (Darth Vader, Green Cross Code Man) here. 

 

David Bowie rehearsed his Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars album in the rehearsal rooms above the pub.

 

In the late 1970s and 1980s this pub was the one to avoid on The Old Kent Road due to regular shootings amongst gangland clientele.

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The ride ends at The Horseshoe pub, Melior Street