The Coal Hole Review: A Strand Pub Named After Manual Labour
The Coal Hole Review: A Strand Pub Named After Manual Labour | Once the coal cellar for the Savoy, now a Nicholson’s pub charging Savoy-adjacent prices to sit in it
Tag: Covent Garden pub
The White Swan Review: The Most Common Pub Name in England
The White Swan Review: The Most Common Pub Name in England | There are hundreds of them. This one has a 4.4. Nobody has ever asked why the swan is white.
Two Brewers Review: They Are Carrying a Barrel Between Them
Two Brewers Review: They Are Carrying a Barrel Between Them | The sign shows two men and a beam. It is a picture of the job, and the job broke people’s backs.
The Marquis Review: The Man Who Bought Britain Its Pubs
The Marquis Review: The Man Who Bought Britain Its Pubs | John Manners set up his old soldiers as publicans, died owing £60,000, and got more pubs named after him than anyone in history
Round Table Review: The Table Is Round Because Nobody Is In Charge
Round Table Review: The Table Is Round Because Nobody Is In Charge | Arthur’s table had no head, on purpose. This one is a pub off St Martin’s Lane with a 4.4 and no visible constitutional theory.
The Salisbury Pub Review: Victorian Gin Palace, Theatreland Prices
The Salisbury Pub Review: Victorian Gin Palace, Theatreland Prices | St Martin’s Lane’s cut-glass survivor is one of the prettiest interiors in London, and everyone in it is checking the time
Maple Leaf Review: Canada, Apologetically, in Covent Garden
Maple Leaf Review: Canada, Apologetically, in Covent Garden | A Canadian pub on Maiden Lane doing the one thing no other themed bar in London attempts: restraint
The Princess of Wales Review: Which One?
The Princess of Wales Review: Which One? | A pub named after a title held by nine different women across four centuries, and the sign does not say
Savoy Tap Review: The Cheapest Pint Next to the Priciest Hotel
Savoy Tap Review: The Cheapest Pint Next to the Priciest Hotel | A pound to ten pounds a head, ninety seconds from a bar where a martini costs twenty-five
The Wellington Review: Named After the Man Who Hated Being Named After
The Wellington Review: Named After the Man Who Hated Being Named After | The Strand’s grand corner pub honours a duke who spent his life irritated by his own celebrity, and it is now full of tourists
The Lemon Tree Review: The Fruit That Won the Empire
The Lemon Tree Review: The Fruit That Won the Empire | Citrus ended scurvy, which won the Royal Navy the sea, which built the empire. There is now a pub with a 4.3.
White Lion Review: The Badge of the House of Mortimer
White Lion Review: The Badge of the House of Mortimer | A white lion is Edward IV again – the third pub in this survey flying a badge from the Wars of the Roses
Crown and Anchor Review: It Is a Naval Badge and Also a Dice Game
Crown and Anchor Review: It Is a Naval Badge and Also a Dice Game | The fouled anchor is the badge of the Lord High Admiral. It is also the name of a gambling game sailors played for two centuries.
The Round House Review: It Is Not Round
The Round House Review: It Is Not Round | Garrick Street’s corner pub has a 4.3, a curved frontage, and a name that is doing the absolute minimum
The Harp Review: Britain’s Best Pub Is a Corridor
The Harp Review: Britain’s Best Pub Is a Corridor | Chandos Place holds the first London pub ever to win CAMRA National Pub of the Year. There is nowhere to sit.
Lamb and Flag Review: The Pub Where Satire Got a Kicking
Lamb and Flag Review: The Pub Where Satire Got a Kicking | Covent Garden’s oldest pub was nicknamed the Bucket of Blood, and once hosted the beating of a satirist. We took notes.
The Chandos Review: The Pub That Is Not The Harp
The Chandos Review: The Pub That Is Not The Harp | Two minutes from Britain’s most decorated real ale pub sits a large, cheap, cheerful alternative, defined forever by proximity
Garrick Arms Review: Named for the Man Who Made Acting Respectable
Garrick Arms Review: Named for the Man Who Made Acting Respectable | David Garrick dragged the English stage out of the gutter, and now there is a pub, a theatre, a club, and a street
Prince of Wales Review: The Third One, and the Feathers Again
Prince of Wales Review: The Third One, and the Feathers Again | Three pubs, two postcodes, one title – and a badge that was probably not taken from a blind man at Crecy
Long Acre Review: The Street Where They Built the Coaches
Long Acre Review: The Street Where They Built the Coaches | A 3.9, the lowest in this batch, and a street named after a strip of land that made the carriages of England
Crown Review: The Commonest Pub Name in Britain
Crown Review: The Commonest Pub Name in Britain | It means loyalty, and it meant it at a time when the alternative was being hanged for the alternative
Sun Tavern Review: Another Sun, and This One Is Just a Sun
Sun Tavern Review: Another Sun, and This One Is Just a Sun | After the parhelion at Mortimer’s Cross and the badge of Edward IV, here is a pub sign that means nothing at all, and it is a relief
Marquess of Anglesey Review: His Leg Has Its Own Grave
Marquess of Anglesey Review: His Leg Has Its Own Grave | By God, sir, I’ve lost my leg. By God, sir, so you have. It was buried in Belgium with a headstone and became a tourist attraction.
Marlborough Head Review: He Never Lost a Battle
Marlborough Head Review: He Never Lost a Battle | John Churchill won four of the greatest victories in British history, was accused of treason, and is Winston’s direct ancestor
Cross Keys Review: The Keys Belong to Saint Peter
Cross Keys Review: The Keys Belong to Saint Peter | Two crossed keys are the arms of the Papacy. Every pub in England displaying them is flying a Catholic badge, mostly by accident.
Bull and Egret Review: The Bird Follows the Bull on Purpose
Bull and Egret Review: The Bird Follows the Bull on Purpose | Cattle egrets walk beside grazing animals because the hooves flush out insects. It is one of the great free lunches in nature.
Bow Street Tavern Review: A Novelist Invented the Police
Bow Street Tavern Review: A Novelist Invented the Police | Henry Fielding wrote Tom Jones and then founded the first professional police force in Britain. His blind brother took over.
Nags Head Review: A Nag Is a Horse Nobody Wants
Nags Head Review: A Nag Is a Horse Nobody Wants | It is not an insult that became a horse. It is a horse that became an insult, and the pub has been carrying it for centuries.
Coach and Horses Review: The Most Honest Sign in England
Coach and Horses Review: The Most Honest Sign in England | It is a picture of what arrived. Not a badge, not a legend, not a man who never existed – a coach, and some horses.
Nell of Old Drury Review: There Is Supposed to Be a Tunnel
Nell of Old Drury Review: There Is Supposed to Be a Tunnel | A passage under Catherine Street from the pub to the Theatre Royal, so that Charles II could reach Nell Gwyn unobserved. Probably.