Rainy Day Pub Tour

As I mentioned in my last entry, I'm a bit behind in going through my photos from the Victoria & Albert Museum (which we did on Friday), so I'm going a bit out of order and writing about our day on Saturday first.

After brunch at a cute cafe near our flat called Cafe de Provence (on Drury Lane--we did not see the Muffin Man), we spent the bulk of Saturday on a pub tour. This was a tip we'd gotten from our American pal from last week's pub quiz; we were originally planning on seeing a couple small museums that day, but after Kensington Palace and the V&A Museum we were a bit museumed-out.

The tour consisted of about two miles of walking over three hours, with plenty of time spent enjoying food and drink in our stops. Our tour guide, Dave, was a very friendly and knowledgable Irishman who showed us all a really great time. There were a dozen other people in the group--a Canadian family of four, a couple pairs of English friends (I believe they were all local), a mother and son, and an American couple we chatted with quite a bit. Although it was a pretty rainy day, we still had a really great time, and would recommend this experience to anyone who likes pubs or historical fun facts!

The tour included information beyond pub facts. We started by St. Paul's Cathedral, which Jon and I visited in 2015. Dave told us about this statue, designed by Elisabeth Frink in 1975:

Paternoster, or Shepherd with his Flock

Apparently Elisabeth Frink was known for exaggerating certain appendages on her male sculpture subjects. When she was commissioned to create this sculpture for St. Paul's, they asked her to please not do that as it would offend the church. She said "Okay, no problem," but then snuck her signature onto one of the sheep instead. The church did not notice and were very pleased with the results. Nobody tells Elisabeth Frink what to do!

The first pub we went to was called The Blackfriar, which was built in 1875 on the site of a Dominican friary. The decor inside is very friar-centric:

At The Blackfriar we chatted with the other American couple, Brian and Amy. They've spent a lot of time in Paris, and they were visiting London for a week before heading back home to New Hampshire. They used to live in New York and Brian works in tech (on the hardware side of things), so we had a fair amount of common ground. Brian urged us to go to a Breaking Bad themed pop-up bar where you enter a trailer and then mix your own drink; I prefer to have other people mix my drinks for me, so we probably won't include it in our trip.

Our next stop was the Old Bell Tavern on Fleet Street. Sir Christopher Wren (the architect who built pretty much all of London. Not really, but he built a lot) built the Old Bell Tavern in 1670. It was built specifically for Wren's masons who were working on St. Bride's Church, so that after the workers were paid up for the week they would go to the pub and give all their money right back.

I forgot to take my own picture, so here is one from the internet, because the stained glass on the pub is pretty.
From http://www.christopherfowler.co.uk/

Our next pub was Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, which was my favorite. Like the Old Bell Tavern, it was rebuilt shortly after the Great Fire of 1666. On our way to Cheshire Cheese, Dave shared a fun fact about the Battle of Trafalgar against the French in 1805. After the British won, they stole France's weapons because that was the best way to be smug about a victory. However, they found that the French cannons were too big to be used on British ships. Not wanting to waste an opportunity to flaunt their victory over the French, they turned them into street bollards:

Dave does not share this fact when he has French tourists.

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese has a pretty cool history. Charles Dickens was a regular, and is thought to have written his realistic dialogue of working class characters by hanging out there and scribing patrons' conversations. Samuel Johnson is also said to have been a regular, but people might just think that because he lived nearby.

Of all the pubs we went to, this one certainly felt the oldest. We had a drink in the basement level; you pretty much have to limbo down the stairs to avoid banging your head. The basement itself features ceiling supports that Dave says were singed during the Great Fire:

We then popped around the corner to Samuel Johnson's house:

Writing the first dictionary took a lot longer than he originally thought it would, and by the end of the process he was quite cranky about it. He had also received a huge advance to write the dictionary, and used his wealth to seduce many ladies.

 This is a statue of Sam's favorite stray cat, Hodge. He used to feed it oysters (that is not as fancy as it sounds because the oysters were from the Thames and the Thames is gross):

On our way to the next pub, we stopped by what is said to be Sweeney Todd's barber shop on Fleet Street:

Bonus shot of our tour mates!

 Our next pub was the Old Bank of England, which is stunning:

Next was The Ship Tavern, which was established in 1549 and originally used to shelter Catholic priests and hold super secret Catholic services (it was during the English Reformation and Catholicism was a bit frowned upon).

The tour normally ends at The Ship Tavern, but most of us were eager to go to one more stop, so Dave brought us to Princess Louise. As he was telling us about the pub, a passerby butted in and tried to inject his own (incorrect) information into the tour. Dave handled it pretty gracefully.

The Princess Louise is considered so historically important that even its marble urinals are "listed" (which means they're on the Statutory List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest).

After the tour was officially over we had another drink with Dave and a few other tour attendees. The whole experience was a great way to soak up some local history in a casual setting, meet some cool people, and of course have tasty beer!

The tour conveniently ended in Covent Garden, only a few minutes from our flat. We went home and had a nap before getting a late night dinner at Barrafina--this time at a new (since 2015) location around the corner from our flat! The food was still excellent, although my favorite location is still the one on Adelaide Street (the only one with milhojas).

Despite the fact that this was the first rainy day we encountered during our trip (although it has rained a bit in the evenings), we were very pleased with our decision to spend our Saturday on a Pub Tour. If you ever visit, we recommend checking out Liquid History Tours!

xo
Hannah