Introduction

by

SIR WALTER GILBEY, BART.

     In the days when England was really a "Land of the Free"— at least in regard to the daily amenities and innocent pleasures which, though individually small, play so great a part in our lives — Shakespeare expressed the spirit of the times when he wrote "Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn?" and in those days there were few indeed who would have dared to answer him in the negative.

      Now, however, the enemies of popular liberties have grown bolder and more vocal, if not more numerous, and, accepting their clamour as evidence of their importance, politicians defer to them, and, to please them, place shackles on the users of inns and taverns, and tell them when they may legally be thirsty and when they may not. They even go so far as to tell a man that he may quench his thirst on the south side of Oxford Street at 11 o'clock, but on the north side not after 10 o'clock, so that at a given moment a man is a criminal for doing in one place what is perfectly legal 75 feet away! Surely a strange reversal of the old legal adage "the law takes no heed of trifles." Trifles in these days seem the main preoccupation of our laws!

     From time immemorial and in all lands inns and taverns, or their equivalents — the French estaminet, the German biergarten — have ministered to the love of conviviality inherent in the majority of reasonably constituted human beings, and have woven themselves into the fabric of the national life. Unhappily in this country the reforming zeal of our self-appointed social mentors has expressed itself in securing the closing of large numbers of the former fine old taverns of England, many of them bearing historical names and being buildings of great antiquarian interest and architectural beauty. To the present-day political "temperance" reformer, however, all these glories are fit only to be sacrificed upon the altar of his favourite fad. Of the history of many of those which remain, Mr. Popham tells us something in this book, which brings back to us in part the glamour of the bygone "spacious days" when the roadside inn played so large a part in the social life of the nation.

WALTER GILBEY.
London, 3rd March. 1927.

Contents

TOUR No. 1  ... THE WEST END

Queen's Head, Prince's Head, Two Chairmen, Stanhope, Nottingham Castle, Talbot, Horse & Groom, Coachmakers Arms, Antelope, Lowndes Arms, Nag's Head, Horse & Groom, Grenadier, York Arms, Shepherd Market, Red Lion, Punch Bowl, Running Footman, One Pound One, White Horse, Crown & Two Chairmen, Star & Garter, Coffee House, Sun & Thirteen Cantons, Intrepid Fox, Huggin's Brewery Tap, Crown, Snow's, Man-in-the-Moon, Stone's, Union Arms, Hand & Racket, Red Lion.

TOUR No. 2  ... WEST CENTRAL

Coal Hole, Adelphi, Nell Gwyn, George, Ship Restaurant, Two Chairmen, Golden Cross, Salisbury, Round Table, Marquis of Granby, Lemon Tree, Rule's, Bedford Head, White Swan, Lamb & Flag, Bird in Hand, Essex Serpent, Tavistock, Hummums, Nell Gwyn, White Hart, Bull & Mouth, Ship, Horse & Groom, Henekey's.

TOUR No. 3  ... NORTH LONDON

Rent Day, Yorkshire Stingo, Queen's Head & Artichoke, Green Man, Adam & Eve, Gate House, Black Cap, Mother Redcap, Mother Shipton, Sir Richard Steele, Freemasons Arms, Wells Hotel, Holly Bush, Jack Straw's Castle, Vale of Health, Bull & Bush, The Spaniards, Flask, Gate House Tavern, Highbury Barn, Hen & Chickens, Pied Bull, Peacock, Blue Coat Boy, Eagle, Green Gate & Cumberland Head, Belvidere, Salmon & Compasses, White Conduit House, New Merlin's Cave, Bagnigge Wells.

TOUR No. 4  ... SOUTH LONDON

Anchor, Ship & Shovel, Antelope, Old Margate Town, Stave Porters, Old Justice, Angel, Ship Aground, George, Tabard, Blue-eyed Maid, Hole-in-the-Wall, Elephant & Castle, Grove House, Plough, Grove, Kentish Drovers, Feathers.

TOUR No. 5  ... EAST CENTRAL

Old Seven Stars, Short's, Carr's, Edinburgh Stores, Devereux, Rainbow, Cock, Peele's, Anderton's, Welch Harp, Cheshire Cheese, White Swan, Old Bell, King of Denmark, King's Head, Chapter House.

TOUR No. 6  ... SMITHFIELD & DISTRICT

Old Bell, Mitre, Baptist's Head, Castle, Barley Mow, Hand & Shears, Rising Sun, Coach & Horses, Goldsmiths' Arms, Queen's Head & French Horn, Raglan, Cooper's Arms.

TOUR No. 7  ... THE CITY

Horn, Watling, Williamson's, Hole-in-the-Wall, Burton Coffee House, Poulter's Arms, Fountain & Star, Axe, Simpson's, Dr. Butler's Head, Whitehead's, Jane Shore, Bull, Ship, Dirty Dick's, Birch's, Short's, Simpson's, George & Vulture, Jamaica, White Hart, Sprague's Shades, Crooked Billet, Elephant, London Tavern.

TOUR No. 8  ... EAST LONDON

Old Ship, Globe, Tiger, Crooked Billet, Three Nuns, Still & Star, Hoop & Grapes, Red Lion, Wheatsheaf, Horse & Leaping Bar, Nag's Head, Grave Maurice, Blind Beggar, Bombay Grab, Widow's Son, Dock House, Oporto, Railway, Star of the East, Cape of Good Hope, Five Bells and Blade Bone, Prospect of Whitby, Town of Ramsgate.