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INNS AND TAVERNS OF OLD LONDON
SETTING FORTH THE HISTORICAL AND LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS OF THOSE
ANCIENT HOSTELRIES, TOGETHER WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE MOST NOTABLE
COFFEE HOUSES, CLUBS, AND PLEASURE GARDENS OF THE BRITISH METROPOLIS
BY
HENRY C. SHELLEY
Author of "Untrodden English Ways," etc.
1909
PREFACE
For all races of Teutonic origin the claim is made that they are
essentially home loving people. Yet the Englishman of the sixteenth
and seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, especially of the latter,
is seen to have exercised considerable zeal in creating substitutes
for that home which, as a Teuton, he ought to have loved above all
else. This, at any rate, was emphatically the case with the
Londoner, as the following pages will testify. When he had perfected
his taverns and inns, perfected them, that is, according to the
light of the olden time, he set to work evolving a new species of
public resort in the coffee house. That type of establishment
appears to have been responsible for the development of the club,
another substitute for the home. And then came the age of the
pleasure garden. Both the latter survive, the one in a form of a
more rigid exclusiveness than the eighteenth century Londoner would
have deemed possible; the other in so changed a guise that
frequenters of the prototype would scarcely recognize the
relationship. But the coffee house and the inn and tavern of old
London exist but as a picturesque memory which these pages attempt
to revive.
Naturally much delving among records of the past has gone to the
making of this book. To enumerate all the sources of information
which have been laid under contribution would be a tedious task and
need not be attempted, but it would be ungrateful to omit thankful
acknowledgment to Henry B. Wheatley's exhaustive edition of Peter
Cunningham's "Handbook of London," and to Warwick Wroth's admirable
volume on "The London Pleasure Gardens of the Eighteenth Century."
Many of the illustrations have been specially photographed from rare
engravings in the Print Boom of the British Museum.
H.C.S.
CONTENTS
PREFACE
I. INNS AND TAVERNS OF OLD LONDON.
I. FAMOUS SOUTHWARK INNS.
II. INNS AND TAVERNS EAST OF ST PAUL'S.
III. TAVERNS OF FLEET STREET AND THEREABOUTS.
IV. TAVERNS WEST OF TEMPLE BAR.
VI. INNS AND TAVERNS FURTHER AFIELD.
II. COFFEE HOUSES OF OLD LONDON.
I. COFFEE HOUSES ON 'CHANGE AND NEAR BY.
II. ROUND ST PAUL'S.
III. THE STRAND AND COVENT GARDEN.
IV. FURTHER WEST.
III. THE CLUBS OF OLD LONDON.
LITERARY.
"SOCIAL AND GAMING".
IV. PLEASURE GARDENS OF OLD LONDON.
I. VAUXHALL.
II. RANELAGH.
III. OTHER FAVOURITE RESORTS.
INDEX
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
KING'S HEAD TAVERN, FLEET STREET
GEOFFREY CHAUCER
TABARD INN, SOUTHWARK IN 1810
BRIDGE FOOT, SOUTHWARK, SHOWING THE BEAR INN IN 1616
COURTYARD OF BOAR'S HEAD INN, SOUTHWARK
GEORGE INN
WHITE HART INN, SOUTHWARK
OLIVER GOLDSMITH
COCK INN, LEADENHALL STREET
PAUL PINDAR TAVERN
ANCIENT VIEW OF CHEAPSIDE, SHOWING THE NAG'S HEAD INN
A FRENCH ORDINARY IN LONDON
YARD OF BELLE SAUVAGE INN
THE CHESHIRE CHEESE ENTRANCE PROM FLEET STREET
THE CHESHIRE CHEESE THE JOHNSON ROOM
DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON
TABLET AND BUST FROM THE DEVIL TAVERN
BEN JONSON
FEATHERS TAVERN
ADAM AND EVE TAVERN
A TRIAL BEFORE THE PIE POWDER COURT AT THE HAND AND SHEARS TAVERN
FALCON TAVERN, BANKSIDE
GARRAWAY'S COFFEE HOUSE
MAD DOG IN A COFFEE HOUSE
TOM'S COFFEE HOUSE
LLOYD'S COFFEE HOUSE
GRECIAN COFFEE HOUSE
JOHN DRYDEN
JOSEPH ADDISON
SIR RICHARD STEELE
LION'S HEAD AT BUTTON'S COFFEE HOUSE
BRITISH COFFEE HOUSE
SLAUGHTER'S COFFEE HOUSE
OLD PALACE YARD, WESTMINSTER
DON SALTERO'S COFFEE HOUSE
ST JAMES'S STREET, SHOWING WHITE'S ON THE LEFT
AND BROOKS'S ON THE RIGHT
THE BRILLIANTS
"PROMISED HORRORS OF THE FRENCH INVASION"
GAMBLING SALOON AT BROOKS'S CLUB
TICKETS FOR VAUXHALL
ENTRANCE TO VAUXHALL
THE CITIZEN AT VAUXHALL
SCENE AT VAUXHALL
VENETIAN MASQUERADE AT RANELAGH, 1749
THE ASSAULT ON DR. JOHN HILL AT RANELAGH
MARYLEBONE GARDENS
WHITE CONDUIT HOUSE
BAGNIGGE WELLS
FINCH'S GROTTO, SOUTHWARK
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