Miles Sindercombe was a soldier who conspired to assassinate Oliver Cromwell – and this Hammersmith pub bears his rebellious name
Sindercombe Social holds a remarkable forty-three hundred and eighty-two reviews and a 4.7 – one of the largest samples and highest scores in this entire Kensington survey – and it is named after a genuinely astonishing historical figure: Miles Sindercombe, a soldier who plotted to assassinate Oliver Cromwell.
The would-be assassin
Miles Sindercombe was a disaffected soldier in the New Model Army during the turbulent years of the 1650s, when Oliver Cromwell ruled England as Lord Protector after the execution of King Charles I and the abolition of the monarchy. Sindercombe was associated with the Levellers – the radical political movement that demanded far more democracy and equality than Cromwell’s regime would allow – and he came to see Cromwell not as a liberator but as a tyrant who had betrayed the revolution.
So he plotted to kill him. Sindercombe was involved in a series of genuine, serious assassination attempts against Cromwell in 1656 and 1657 – plans to shoot him, to ambush him, and finally an audacious scheme to burn down Whitehall Palace with an incendiary device while Cromwell was inside. The plots were real, dangerous, and came genuinely close to succeeding.
The plot that failed
The Whitehall plot was betrayed at the last moment – an accomplice informed on the conspirators – and Sindercombe was arrested. He was tried for high treason and condemned to the horrific traitor’s death of being hanged, drawn and quartered. But he cheated the executioner: the night before his execution in 1657, Sindercombe died in the Tower of London, apparently having taken poison, reportedly smuggled to him – some said by his sister – so that he might die on his own terms rather than suffer the appalling public execution. Even his death was an act of defiance.
It is a genuinely dramatic and little-known story – a radical soldier who tried repeatedly to kill the most powerful man in England, came close, and cheated the executioner with poison rather than face the traitor’s death. That a Hammersmith pub should be named after him is a wonderfully rebellious and unexpected choice.
The local connection
Sindercombe is thought to have had connections to this area of west London, which is presumably why the pub bears his name. It is a fine example of a pub reaching past the usual kings, dukes and saints to honour a genuine radical and rebel – a man who stood against tyranny (as he saw it) and paid for it with his life. In a survey full of pubs named for the establishment – royal titles, aristocratic families, loyal symbols – a pub named for a would-be assassin of the head of state is a bracing and welcome exception.
The “Social”
The “Social” in the name is the modern suffix we met at Nolita Social in the Chelsea survey – the contemporary fashion for appending “Social” to a venue name to signal conviviality, community and gathering. Here it pairs intriguingly with the rebellious historical name: the “Sindercombe Social,” a place of friendly gathering named after a revolutionary conspirator. The juxtaposition of the warm modern “Social” with the dangerous historical “Sindercombe” is oddly appealing.
The pub
A hugely popular, well-regarded pub doing a strong 4.7 across an enormous and real sample of over four thousand people – convincingly and thoroughly good, and clearly a beloved local – named after one of the most genuinely rebellious figures to grace a pub sign in this entire survey.
Verdict
Popular, superbly rated on a huge sample, and named after Miles Sindercombe – the radical soldier who plotted to kill Cromwell and cheated the executioner with poison.
Have a pint at the Social, and raise it to Miles Sindercombe – would-be assassin, radical, and one of the most defiantly rebellious names on any pub in London.
Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: [email protected]
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