Comments on: In Old Holborn

By: Hugh

Hugh — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 04:11:10 +0000

One part of Shoe Lane the GA did not reach was the last to the South where it meets Fleet St. Here it runs between the Old Telegraph building and the infamous Black Lubianka, of Private Eye fame, that housed the Daily Express.

I am very familiar with this stretch, as in 1980 I opened what was then called Britain’s first Superpub on the site of Aunties. Aunties was officially known as The Crown and Anchor, as was the new pub I ran. Dating back to around 1770 but probably subject to some rebuilds, it was demolished to make way for a new office block and library with the pub occupying the ground floor, first floor and with the beer cellar in the basement.

Situated behind the Daily telegraph print rooms and adjacent to the Express, the new pub had 3 bars, a public bar for the printers, Daily Telegraph workers, a lounge bar which was used by both newspapers white collar workers, fathers of the print chapels and other white collars from the surrounding offices. On the first floor was Spatz, a 100 seat restaurant and cocktail bar for journos and other denizens of the area. It also offered live music from 5-7pm Monday to Friday. Only the public bar, a print boozer, was open at weekends.

The print boozers were allowed special licensing hours to enable the printers working through the night to have their ‘blow’. The ‘Blow’ was a 15 minute break; away from the heat, noise and dust of the presses when the thirsty printers would down to or three light and bitters consisting of a half pint of draught bitter and a half pint of light ale.

When it opened in 1980, operated by the Chaucer Inns division of Courage it very quickly became the busiest pub in the entire Courage Estate. It was a wonderful experience to open such a huge pub soon populated on both sides of the bar by a wonderful panoply of characters; not least Sadie, the Glaswegian barmaid who ruled the print bar with a rod of iron and Phillip the ‘blind’ chef who was straight out of Fawlty Towers.

I was moved on by Courage after about 18 months and not long after the exodus of the printers began and the pub fell into decline, it was re-invented a few times but never again hit the heights of that heady first year

By: Jo N

Jo N — Sun, 16 Jun 2024 18:52:25 +0000

You missed a little detour to the station via the fascinating curiosity of Sir John Soane’s Museum – but of course that deserves an entry to itself!

By: Cherub

Cherub — Sun, 16 Jun 2024 17:00:26 +0000

Fascinating photos. I didn’t actually know Leather Lane existed or even where it was until I’d been in London for about 15 years and a friend took me to a gastropub in the vicinity. It was the Bleeding Heart in Bleeding Heart Yard.

By: Bernie

Bernie — Sun, 16 Jun 2024 10:53:05 +0000

Ah yes! Like Marcia, I too have paperclips in an old tobacco tin, and also a hoard of screws and nails to remind me of the days when I was young enough to do lots of DIY around the home.

As a Londoner by birth and upbringing I have my own memories of Holborn: Gamages great store, very good for toys and furniture, and a few doors away the fascinating shop-window of Basset-Lowke with its great range of model (working) steam engines.

And then, after I left school and started to educate myself by attending Birkbeck College, then still in Breams Buildings, Chancery Lane, how I enjoyed my nightly walk from Gower St (UCL) to Birkbeck via Red Lion Square! Happy days!

By: aubrey

aubrey — Sun, 16 Jun 2024 10:45:48 +0000

Not forgetting the walk through the alleyway from the highway to the ancient Gresham college.

By: Marcia Howard

Marcia Howard — Sun, 16 Jun 2024 08:16:16 +0000

A fascinating and interesting read. Time I returned for an exploration of my own. I still also have an Old Holborn tin, presumably my father’s, although he died in the early 1960s so I can’t check. Mine usefully holds paper clips!

By: Christine Swan

Christine Swan — Sun, 16 Jun 2024 07:37:47 +0000

Fascinating glimpses of old Holborn. I took frequently walk this way out of necessity to get from West to East. I could take the Tube – and often do in inclement weather, but I prefer to walk. I imagine the area in the time of Dickens and great grandparents and consider what they would have shared with the present day.
I was told that the Staple Inn was rebuilt after destruction (in World War II possibly?), painstakingly so from as much of the original materials as could be gleaned. But, I do not know if this is true. My great great uncle organised an annual fundraising dinner for the Music Hall Benevolent Fund at the Holborn Dining Rooms – which, I believe were at the Oxford Street end of Holborn.
There is indeed still much to see in old Holborn.