Wapping Tavern Review: A Plain Name for an Ancient Maritime Village

A tavern flying the plain, proud name of Wapping itself – the ancient riverside sailors’ village on the north bank of the Thames

The Wapping Tavern carries a strong 4.5 across more than six hundred reviews and does something the Prat’s naming desk always respects: it names itself simply and proudly for its own ancient place – Wapping, the old maritime village on the north bank. No borrowed grandeur, just the plain name of home.

Wapping, on the river

The Wapping Tavern sits in Wapping, the historic riverside sailors’ quarter on the north bank of the Thames, appearing in this Docklands survey through the scrape’s reach along the river.

The word tavern

“Tavern” is one of the oldest and most evocative words for a drinking house in the English language, older even than “pub” – it comes down from the Latin “taberna,” a hut or shop, and carries centuries of association with the coaching inn, the wayside stop, the old place of hospitality where travellers rested and drank. It has a weathered, historic ring that “bar” or even “pub” cannot match, summoning tankards and low beams and the whole long tradition of English hospitality. To call yourself a tavern rather than a bar is to plant a flag firmly in the deep past. In ancient Wapping, of all places, the old word fits.

The village of Wapping

The Prat’s history desk relishes the name Wapping itself. This was one of the most intensely maritime districts in all of England – a village of sailors, watermen, shipwrights, chandlers and dockers strung along the river wall, its life bound utterly to the Thames and the ships. It was here that Execution Dock hanged its pirates, here that the great warehouses stored the wealth of the world, here that Wapping High Street ran between the river and the docks. To name a tavern simply “Wapping” is to claim the whole salt-stained history of the place – the plainest possible name, and one of the richest.

The honest local

The Prat has celebrated the honestly-named throughout this survey – the pubs that take the plain name of their street, their postcode or their parish rather than reaching for a pirate or a saint. The Wapping Tavern belongs to that admirable tribe: it names its place and its trade, and nothing more. There is a quiet confidence in it, a sense of a pub secure enough in its own patch that it needs no fancy dress. The 4.5 across six hundred reviews suggests the plain approach serves the ancient village well.

Verdict

A 4.5 across six hundred-plus reviews is a strong score, and the Wapping Tavern earns it on honest, unpretentious character. It flies the plain, proud name of its own ancient maritime village – Wapping, the old sailors’ quarter on the north bank – paired with “tavern,” the deepest and most historic of all words for a drinking house.

Go for the honest local welcome and the weight of the old word “tavern” in the old village of Wapping, and enjoy a pub secure enough to need no borrowed grandeur. In a quarter this historic, the plain name of the place is romance enough.

Alan Nafzger

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]