Some of the pictures of London pubs in The Pubs Of Old London on Spitalfields Life seem familiar, and while it was good to see these images, from “glass slides many dating from a century ago left over from the days of the magic lantern shows given by the London & Middlesex Archaeological Society at the Bishopsgate Institute“, it would certainly be nice to know the actual dates of the pictures as well something more about the people who took them.
The pictures have an added interest for me in that over the years I’ve visited quite a few of them, and have photographed some, along with quite a few other pubs. Those that I recognise are still well-known London pubs, although some now look rather different.
One that has changed less than most it ‘Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese‘, in Wine Office Court, an alley off Fleet St. Back before the national press moved out from the street, this was a favoured haunt of many journalists, and I’ve met and talked with a few of them there. Inside it still seems much the same, except that the beer recently jumped up rather in price and smoking isn’t allowed, though the roaring open fire still smokes out my favourite bar. If you see any journos there now, they are returning on a nostalgia trip.
The restaurant there used to be a good place for roast beef served in the traditional English style with roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, thick gravy and overcooked vegetables, and it was delicious. Best to go with a handful of friends to fill the benches along one of the long tables – and cheaper to bring in your own beer from the bar opposite. But last time I went, just a couple of years back, the beef was stringier and the portions smaller and although the place looked the same the atmosphere didn’t seem as warm. Presumably like other Sam Smith‘s pubs it now has to serve Sarah Brownridge frozen food – and you’d actually do better eating at most Wetherspoons (Penderel’s Oak on Holborn seems ok.)
Now too the price of beer there has shot up. Until Nov 2011, Sam Smith’s had a policy of only increasing their beer prices in line with increases in duty, and a pint of bitter was around £2.10 – considerably cheaper than most in London. That policy went out of the window, and now its around £3 a pint.
The George & Vulture in Castle Court is another Sam Smith’s pub, and there has been a pub on its site since 1268, though the present building only dates from 1748, and was later a favourite haunt of Mr Pickwick. I thought it had probably changed remarkably little when I photographed it in the 1980s. Like most of London it’s now been tidied up a bit, though I’ve not been there lately.
Ye Olde Mitre in Ely Place is a Fuller’s Pub, and the passage shown on Spitalfields Life looks very similar to that I photographed, though the last time I went that way it had also been tidied up. The George in Borough High St is of course very famous, and owned by the National Trust.
But the picture that caught my particular attention was of the London Apprentice on the river-front at Isleworth. At 16 I became a sea scout, and perhaps the main attraction was that after the meetings we would adjourn to a local pub. Then it was occasionally the London Apprentice, though they were a bit of a posh joint even then, and sometimes disinclined to serve unruly under-age youths. I think the smaller pub a few yards down the road we used to prefer has now closed.
I’ve photographed quite a few London pubs, and been photographed in them, but finding the pictures is a bit tricky and random. Doggett’s Coat and Badge is perhaps most notable for its view over the Thames, perhaps best in the evening.
Another pub I’ve photographed a few times is the Lord Napier in Hackney Wick, noted for its graffiti:
I’ve photographed pubs in many places and for different reasons – and perhaps one day I’ll seriously put together a collection of them.
But one of the ways that pubs have perhaps changed most doesn’t come over in the pictures. Some time in the late 70s we had a visitor and decided we’d like a bottle of wine with our meal. The off-licence across the road had unfortunately closed down, so we took the short walk to our local, the Beehive, which had an ‘Off-Sales’ department with its own door, its title etched into glass, walked in and rang the bell for service.
“I’d like a bottle of wine”, I said to the man who had emerged behind the counter. “Wine, wine…?”, he scratched his balding head, “I think we have a bottle” and he walked away to search, returning a couple of minutes later triumphantly holding up the entire two bottle stock of the cellar. “Red or white?” We took the red, and I still wonder if they ever sold the white. But at least the price was sensible, unlike some pubs today (mentioning no names where they like to charge a few pence short of £18 for a bottle that would cost around four quid in the off-licence down the road.
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My London Diary : Buildings of London : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage
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