The best London pubs of 1850

If your unreliable TARDIS dumped you in London in 1850, where would you go for a pint?

We’ve come across an old guide book that, for once, gives a straight answer.

Peter Cunningham’s Handbook of London was first published in two volumes in 1849, then condensed into a single volume in 1850.

First, it recommends hotels, including:

“…among the old inns, the Golden Cross, at Charing-cross, and Gerard’s Hall Inn, Bread-street, Cheapside.”

Gerard’s Hall Inn sounds fascinating – might we, through 21st century eyes, think of it as a pub?

It doesn’t quite feel like it from what we’ve been able to read. But you certainly get a pint there.

What really interested us was a section titled ‘Breweries and Beer in London’.

First, the author first lists great breweries:

• Barclay Perkins, Southwark 
• Meux, Tottenham Court Road 
• Combe Delafield, Long Acre
• Whitbread, Chiswell Street
• Truman, Hanbury & Buxton, Brick Lane
• Goding, Lambeth
• Reid, Liquorpond Street (!)
• Calvert, Upper Thames Street
• Elliot, Pimlico

He adds this suggestion:

“The visitor should exert his influence among his friends to obtain an order of admission to any one of the largest I have named.”

Brewers, how would you feel about a bunch of top-hatted toffs turning up at your premises for a nose around?

Then, finally, we get a list of four pubs.

Two are suggested for the “best London porter and stout in draught”:

• Cock Tavern, Fleet Street
• The Rainbow Tavern, opposite

And two more are those which “Judges of ale recommend”:

• John O’Groats, Rupert Street
• The Edinburgh Castle, Strand

The latter was famous as the founding place of Punch magazine.

Of the four, only The Cock survives.

You could go there for a pint this weekend if you wanted, although whether you’ll find any draught porter is hard to say.