Famous author hangouts
Byron, Shelley, Keats, Dickens, Black Bess - they've all been customers of The Spaniard's Inn in Golder's Green
11 April 2012
For any aspiring author, when inspiration runs dry it often helps to recharge the batteries in the company of like-minded folk. If you want to channel the spirit of some of the greatest writers in the world or simply fancy raising a toast to your literary hero, head for one of these olde worlde pubs...
- The AnchorBankside, 34 Park Street, SE1. Tube: London Bridge. Tel: 020 7407 1577Dr Johnson enjoyed the odd pint or two here with his friend Mrs Thrale whose husband owned it and the brewery next door. It became a sort of Groucho club with Oliver Goldmsith, David Garrick and Edmund Burke holding court. It remains a fine old pub with five bars, a riverside terrace and the loudest creaking floorboards in London.
- The French House49 Dean Street, W1. Tube: Leicester Square/Piccadilly Circus. Tel: 020 7437 2799The walls of this famous Soho bar, still a favourite watering hole of the chattering classes, are filled with pictures of famous people who have frequented it over the years. One particular customer, Dylan Thomas, once left the only manuscript of Under Milk Wood here.
- Ye Olde Cheshire CheeseWine Office Court, 145 Fleet Street, EC4. Tube: Blackfriars/Chancery Lane. Tel: 020 7353 6170With its cosy rooms, sawdust-covered floors, open fires and creaking stairs, this is one of London's most celebrated taverns. The original burnt down in the Great Fire of London but was rebuilt the following year. Despite some modernisations, it seems hardly to have changed at all so it won't take too much imagination to transport yourself back to the days when it was visited regularly by Charles Dickens and Dr Samuel Johnson.
- The Sherlock Holmes10-11 Northumberland Street, WC2. Tube: Embankment. Tel: 0207 930 2644Sherlock Holmes fans head for this London pub to pay tribute the famous literary sleuth. It's unique selling point is Holmes' study which is reconstructed to appear as it did one foggy night in The Empty House, every item of which is supplied by the Conan Doyle family.
- The Spaniard's InnSpaniard's Road, NW3. Tube: Golder's Green. Tel: 020 8731 6571Natasha Bedingfield had a bit of trouble reciting Byron, Shelley and Keats over a hip-hop beat. She might have fared better if she'd visited this 16th Century pub for inspiration as the 'dead poets' were all regular visitors. Dickens also made an appearance; in the Pickwick Papers this was where Mrs Bardell and her friends plotted Mr Pickwick's downfall. The history doesn't stop there; Dick Turpin was said to have used the toll gate here as a stable for Black Bess!
