London is a very old city where some old traditions are bound to come with the territory. One of these is shown in London’s famous watering holes, with old boozers surviving years on end to continue a capital staple: serving a pint to its thirsty gaggle of frequenters.
Ye Olde Cock Taven is one of the oldest pub names in the city, dating all the way back to the candlelit evenings of 1549, and opening in its current spot to host late-Victorian knees-ups in 1887. In that time, it’s been known to pour jugs of beer for a hefty number of people – including some names that are also synonymous with London’s literary history. It’s even reputed to be the narrowest pub in the whole city!
Ye Olde Cock Tavern
‘Tis a strikingly tall and thin pub building that you’ll easily be able to notice on a stroll through Fleet Street. Walk inside, and you’ll not only be greeted with a set of old paintings, but the knowledge of the historic figures that entered the building. Both Charles Dickens and seismic diarist Samuel Pepys are thought to have been visitors to Ye Olde Cock Tavern in its time, and the pub even gets mentioned by name in Virginia Woolf’s 1928 work Orlando.
She recalls the pub in its 16th-century form and speaks of a meeting there when it was named the Cock Tavern, saying: ‘He could remember, he said, a night at the Cock Tavern in Fleet Street when Kit Marlowe was there and some others.’ Aside from its mention in Pepys’ diary, you’ll also find written words about Ye Olde Cock Tavern by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who was known to speak to ‘O Plump head-waiter at the Cock‘.
Nowadays, it’s owned by Greene King, serving up Sunday roasts and giving people wandering around the city a place to head into after a look around St. Paul’s for a quick pit stop. Even all these years later, though, it’s hard to get away from that flurry of literary history.
So, if you find yourself sipping on a foamy pint one cold November evening, don’t dismiss the history of where you sit – take a moment to inhale the musky surroundings and imagine yourself sitting beside Dickens or Woolf as the words for The Pickwick Papers or Orlando first raced through their minds. Then go and have a game of Shuffleboard. They have that here now. No doubt it would have gone down a treat with ye authors of olde.
Find Ye Olde Cock Tavern at 22 Fleet Street, Temple, EC4Y 1AA. Find out more on their website.