Inns Of Long Forgotten London
Leafing through the fat volumes of Walter Thornbury’s London Old & New is the least energetic form of pub crawl I know and yet I found I was intoxicated merely by studying these tottering old inns, lurching at strange angles like inebriated old men sat by the wayside. Published in the eighteen-seventies, these publications looked back to London and its rural outskirts in the early nineteenth century, evoking a city encircled by coaching inns where pigs roamed loose in Edgware Rd and shepherds drove sheep to market down Highgate Hill.
White Hart Tavern, Bishopsgate
Bell Tavern, Edmonton
Jack Straw’s Castle, Hampstead
Spaniards’ Hotel, Highgate
Old Crown Inn, Highgate
Gate House Tavern, Highgate
The Brill Tavern, Somers Town
The Castle Tavern, Kentish Town
Old Mother Red Cap Tavern, Camden
Queen’s Head & Artichoke, Edgware Rd
Bell Inn, Kilburn
Halfway House, Kensington
Black Lion Tavern, Chelsea
World’s End Tavern, Chelsea
Gun Tavern, Pimlico
Rose & Crown, Kensington
Tattersall’s, Knightsbridge
Three Cranes Tavern, Upper Thames St, City of London
The Old Queen’s Head, Islington
Old Red Lion, Upon the banks of the Fleet – prior to demolition
Saracen’s Head, Snow Hill – prior to demolition
Old Tabard Tavern, Southwark – prior to demolition
White Hart Tavern, Borough
Inns of the Borough
Images courtesy Bishopsgate Institute
You may like to take a look at other engravings from London Old & New
and more pubs
wonderful pictures – thankyou.
Pictures from a good, old, cozy, comfortable, quiet time … — (I do love the horses era!)
Love & Peace
ACHIM
Ah, if only these inns had survived into modern times – but imagine the ongoing fights to stop Boris from sanctioning their being demolished.
Think of the many grand hurrahs had at these “quiet” inns. A good thesis project for any talk about the goings on in local broadsides, gossipy letters or other remnants of the times. Have you read Richardson’s Old Inns of England? Most are repurposed into swanky field and stream clubs. Of course I prefer the old & tottering as they were. I do so enjoy your posts.
We still have our old coaching inn at Romford, The Golden Lion.
Gary
Are those the same Jack Straw’s Castle and Spaniards I visited in 1977?
Thank You so much…it’s like being in a time-machine..
Absolutely fabulous photos! Thank you (My husbands family were bootmakers on high street highgate for many years 19th century – so these are just marvelous!) Apparently lived also on Cholmeley Street – do you have any photos of this area ? What a treat!