Ep 15 Fitzrovia’s Legendary Pubs Pt 2 – Bohemians, Literary Legends, The Marquis of Granby & The Museum Tavern

In this second episode on the historic pubs of Fitzrovia, we branch out to the pubs other than The Fitzroy Tavern.  In this one, the Wheatsheaf, Marquis of Granby, Newman Arms and The Museum Tavern are discussed, all having impressive lists of famous patrons and the stories that go with them
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Google map with pubs covered in previous episodes pinned, courtesy of Andy Meddick:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/4/edit?mid=12c-WKa3XiT1qTLydK8psZocUR7Y_Wes&usp=sharing

Or TinyURL: https://tinyurl.com/bduca5dv

The following resources are referenced or quoted frequently in these episodes:

• Ted Bruning  -- Historic Pubs of London (ISBN 978-0658005022) and London By Pub (ISBN 978-0658005022)
• Wikipedia
• https://londonspubswherehistoryreallyhappened.wordpress.com/  by Ann Laffeaty

Additionally, the  following resource(s) were cited this episode:

 Sally Fiber, The Fitzroy: The Autobiography of a London Tavern , 1995 ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1857760239 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1857760231

John N. Henderson, A History of The Museum tavern in Bloomsbury, 1989, ISBN 095149130X

https://returnofanative.com/news/the-fitzrovians-fitzroy-tavern/

https://www.ourtor.com/post/may-we-ever-find-out-what-the-devil-was-going-on-in-bohemian-fitzrovia

https://www.reallondonpubs.com/the-wheatsheaf/history

Intro music:

Vivaldi - Spring Allegro by John Harrison with the Wichita State University Chamber Orch.

Photo:  Oxyman

Website: https://historiclondonpubcast.com/

E-mail: hosteric@historiclondonpubcast.com

Transcript

Welcome to this episode of The Historic London Pubcast. I'm Eric Blair, and I'd like to take you on a journey through the rich history of London's iconic pubs. My goal is to share with you my passion for the great old pubs of London. I want to give you some facts to help you appreciate the history of these hallowed establishments mixed in with some fun stories that make it all go down as smooth as a well poured pint. 

This is the second episode devoted to the historic pubs of the Fitzrovia area of London. The previous Pubcast discussed the cultural center of the area, The Fitzroy Tavern. I try not to make these episodes more than about 20 minutes and The Fitz, as fans call it, will fill that up. Today we'll talk about some of the other pubs in the area, all like The Fitz with famous clientele. 

If you haven't listened to the first episode, it really would be best for you to do so. It gives you the flavor of the area that will be at play in the pubs that we discussed today. The very well-done website, returnofanative.com has an excellent article on The Fitz. See the notes for a link.

One paragraph from it provides a particularly good summary of the Fitzrovia vibe. Although geographically close to the Bloomsbury Set, Fitzrovians were wilder in temperament - a loose knit gang of friends described in The Times Literary Supplement as, 

“A world of outsiders. Down and outs. Drunks. Sensualists, homosexuals and eccentrics.”

At The Fitzroy Tavern, the Fitzrovians rubbed shoulders with criminals, detectives from Scotland Yard, and locals. With a mixture of hilarity, seriousness and cattiness they would discuss their work lives around the tavern’s long saloon bar. Charlie Allchild, the long-time Fitz Publican, describes the attitude of the group in the early days after the First World War,

“In those days, if one of them sold a picture or had an article accepted, they were all in the money for as long as it lasted. Then they were all broke until another one was lucky.”

Okay, an interesting bunch. What about the pubs they frequented? Well, a good way to start is to look at a few paragraphs from a book written by Sally Fiber, the granddaughter of the founder of The Fitzroy Tavern. She calls the book An Autobiography of The Pub. Here's how she describes what a pub crawl for the hardcore Fitz patrons, AKA The Bohemians, look like, 

“A pub crawl was an essential part of the Fitzrovia ritual and was a well-timed affair. Everyone got to know where they could find each other at any time of the day or evening, even before or after normal pub hours since nightclubs, restaurants and cafes were beads in the smoky necklace of the pub crawl. In the morning, they met at Madame Brewers, a Charlotte Street coffeehouse, to clear the head of the previous evening's excesses. After a bit of caffeination, they would set off a new, starting with nearby pubs in Fitzrovia.”

Sally mentions The Black Horse at Rathbone Place, The Bricklayers Arms on Gresse Street. Both pubs are still around today, although I have not personally been to either. The Bricklayers Arms is a Samuel Smith pub that patron reviews like, and I think it's easy to support the contention that it goes back to at least the middle 1800s.

The Black Horse has only just returned to us as a pub. It has gone from a drinkery in The Fitzroy Bohemian days, then to a burger restaurant, then to an American style bar, and finally, now reopened in 2021 as The Black Horse again. After all that rebuilding, I would guess that The Black Horse has likely swept away any physical trace his days as a Fitzrovia magnet for The Bohemians. But if you pop in, you can say you've been to the place where the management once told Dylan Thomas,

“We don't want your sort here.”

Sally continues her description of a typical pub crawl, mentioning two pubs we will talk about today. The Wheatsheaf, further up Rathbone Place with his mock-Tudor facade, was a serious competitor to The Fitzroy. Its celebrity turn came on punctually at six every evening when Mrs. Stuarts entered, 

“She was an elderly lady swathed in black, who over her glass of Guinness in between doing two crossword puzzles, could reel out anecdotes on virtually every subject.”

Across the road from The Wheatsheaf was the more rough and ready Marquis Of Granby, patronized by a shadier clientele. We'll talk about The Wheatsheaf and The Marquis Of Granby, but let me complete Sally's description. She mentions another pub on the typical crawl. The Duke of York, also a pub that has survived till today. She says the pub had an amazing Proprietor, Major Alf Klein. From time to time, he would dress up and ride the streets in a pony and trap. Not surprisingly, he was nicknamed, ‘The Mad Major.’ Wiki gives us a couple of other fun facts about The Duke of York pub.

“In 1943, Anthony Burgess and his wife were drinking in the pub when they witnessed it invaded by a razor gang. It was. It has been speculated that this influenced the content of his later novel A Clockwork Orange. In 2014, Prince Andrew, Duke of York gave permission for his image to be used on the new pub sign, making it the only known pub to bear the current Duke of York's image on its sign."

The Tamil Poet Campbell Mutu, who was a long time Editor of Poetry London, knew the Fitzrovia crowd and their ways well. They called him Tambi, down at the Fitz. He once told a young Writer,

“Beware of Fitzrovia. It's a dangerous place.”

“For fights with knives?” the young man asked.

“No. It's worse. You might get Soho-it is.”

“What's that?”

“If you get Soho-it is, you will stay there always, day and night and get no work done. Ever. You have been warned.”

Okay, with that warning, let's venture forth to our first pub, The Wheatsheaf, 25 Rathbone Place, a two-minute walk south of the Fitz. There's not much history on The Wheatsheaf. The excellent Blog Writer Ann Lafferty in her londonspubswherehistoryreallyhappened.wordpress.com site tells us that the pub only dates back to 1930. Even so, it does have the famous patron box check. First there's Dylan Thomas. He met his wife there. According to Wiki, in the spring of 1936, the Poet Dylan Thomas met Caitlin McNamara, a 22-year-old blond hair, blue eyed dancer of Irish descent. She had run away from home, intent on making a career in dance and, aged 18, joined the chorus line at The London Palladium.

Introduced by Artist Augustus John, Caitlin's lover. They met in The Wheatsheaf. Laying his head on her lap, a drunken Thomas proposed. Thomas liked to comment that he and Caitlin were in bed together ten minutes after they first met. Although Caitlin initially continued her relationship with John, she and Thomas began a correspondence, and in the second half of 1936 they were courting. They married at the Registrar's office in Penzance in Cornwall in July 1937. There's also a local legend about Dylan and The Wheatsheaf. Dylan was drinking there one night sometime before he met Caitlin. He was approached by a dodgy looking character that had been staring at him while sketching. He showed Dylan the sketch. It was exactly what he had been thinking. This mysterious man turned out to be Alistair Crowley, cultist, who described himself variously as the Prince of Darkness, the wickedest man in the world, and the beast. Dylan was so freaked out that he stayed away from the area for some time. Crowley was a frequent patron of all the Fitzrovia pubs, including The Fitz. At that pub. Annie Allchild, Charlie's wife and co publican, did serve Crowley, but she really didn't approve of his presence. 

There's a lot that can be said about Crowley's life, but it probably is best just to summarize that he was a ceremonial magician, Poet, philosopher, political theorist, novelist, mountaineer, painter and founder of the religion of Thelema. He actively self-promoted as a man of mystery and power. Evidently, he had enough power to impress a young poet who had had a few pints under his belt.

Blogger Ann Lafferty tells us of another local legend at The Wheatsheaf, 

“George Orwell once threw up all over the bar there.”

Well, George, we all have our Room 101s to endure, don't we? A Biographer and friend of Dylan Thomas, Constantine Fitzgibbons, relates that as the 1930s progressed, Orwell began to get tired of the noise of The Fitz and encouraged the shift of some of the intelligentsia to The Wheatsheaf.

Orwell always preferred an unspoiled working-class pub for conversation. Orwell's Publisher Frederick Warburg remembers Orwell taking him out to lunch after the publication of Animal Farm, the place, of course, The Wheatsheaf. English Writer Lettice Cooper recalled that George had strong ideas about what his friends should drink in a pub,

“Whether I asked for a lager or a light ale, I always got the darkest kind of beer if George was ordering."

The next pub is The Wheatsheaf’s neighbor, The Marquis of Granby. Let me start by saying that in the case of both The Wheatsheaf and The Marquis, you have to be careful to also include the location of the pub you were talking about. In Greater London, there are five pubs named The Wheatsheaf and three named The Marquis of Granby. 

The Marquis of Granby is also located on Radburn Place, a one-minute walk from The Wheatsheaf. But what a difference that makes! In Orwell’s time, The Marquis of Granby was run by an ex-policeman and known to cater to a rougher crowd. So that was a disadvantage versus The Wheatsheaf. But The Marquis did have one outstanding characteristic. The Wheatsheaf and The Fitzroy were in Holborn and licensed only until 10:30 p.m. The Marquis, however, was just a few yards further east and was in Marylebone and remained open until 11. So, every night there was a short mass movement from borough to borough to join the ex-policeman and his bookmaker friends. 

So, who is The Marquis of Granby and why are there numerous pubs named after him? General John Manners was the Marquis of Granby, who lived from 1721 to 1770. He was a highly decorated military officer and a hero of The Seven Years War. He had a reputation for both liking a bitter drink and having a concern for his men, even after their service ended. There were no pensions in those days, so the General helped those with long and distinguished service records to become Publicans.  At one time. There were more pubs named after him than any other person in a battle against the French in 1760 he lost his hat and wig, so to be proper, all pub signs should depict him as bareheaded. 

Writer Anthony Burgess tells us that the management of the bar at his time were gay and Wiki quotes. Time Out magazine saying that Dylan Thomas was a regular visitor who frequented the pub in order to meet Guardsmen who were cruising for gay partners, but not what you think. Dylan was there to start fights with them. 

Okay, that may or may not be true, but I really question Wiki’s next factoid about The Marquis of Granby.  They say the pub appears in chapter 27 of The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens. Dickens does mention a Marquis of Granby, saying that it was a roadside inn, but I see nothing to say that it is this Marquis, and we know there are a lot of Marquis of Granby.

Sorry, Wiki, I do disagree with you so seldom. 

Both of these pubs today are worth visiting. They have a classic pub architecture and great storied histories to ruminate on while sipping a pint. The Wheatsheaf appears to be an independently owned pub. This Marquis of Granby is a Nicholson pub. Our last pub in Fitzrovia is The Newman Arms, located at 23 Rathbone Street, another one-minute walk from our previous pub, The Marquis. The basic building is said to date back to when the street was developed in the 1760s, but a rebuild happened in 1863 when it secured its beer license. Prior to that, it functioned as a blacksmith shop, a candle maker shop, a picture framers, and a brothel. Until 2017, there was a picture of a woman painted on a window on the top floor that looked down on the street. Viewers could clearly guess her profession, so this was a nod to the building's risqué past, but that has been replaced with just a regular window, perhaps reflecting modern sensibilities. The pub is said to have been referred to in two Orwell novels – Keep the Aspidistra Flying, and 1984. In the latter book it’s thought to be The Pearls pub, but it is not mentioned by name in either. 

The pub was closed in 2017 and reopened by Truman Brewery the following year. Wiki reports that the building has an unofficial blue plaque in honor of a former Landlord, and reads,

“Joe Jenkins, ex-Proprietor, Poet, bon viveur, an old git, regularly swore at everyone on these premises.”

Full disclosure I have never been to this pub. I think the closure had something to do with it. That's my excuse anyway. But it's a must for my next visit. A pub with a connection to one of my favorite Authors, and with a history of a saucy Proprietor. You can't get any better than that. Our last pub today is actually at the edge of the next area over - Bloomsbury. About the 12-minute walk east brings us to The Museum Tavern at 49 Great Russell Street, directly across from The British Museum.

A personal story. I was at The Museum Tavern a few years ago with a friend, and we mentioned to the young fellow behind the bar that we love coming to London to visit historic pubs like this one. He said, 

“Well then, I have something for you.”

And after rummaging in the back a bit, he gave each of us a copy of a 32-page publication by John N. Henderson entitled, “A History of the Museum Tavern in Bloomsbury.”

He went out of his way to do that, and still today I very much appreciate it. I draw quite a bit from it in relating the history that follows. Thanks again mate. 

The land that this tavern is on and much of the area was owned by William de Blemunt in the 12th Century, with the centerpiece being his big manor house.

His name, de Blemunt , gave rise to the area being referred to as Blemondisberi, which evolved to the current Bloomsbury. In 1375 the land went to the Carthusian monks, and all was good until Henry the Eighth came along. In the 1500s. As with lots of church land, he confiscated this parcel and gave it to Henry, his Chancellor, who later became the Earl of Southampton.

Ownership today is said to still rest with the Earl's descendants. In 1660, the Fourth Earl of Southampton built a grand house and businesses supporting the servants and suppliers of this manor began to spring up. In 1683 there was most likely a building on the land that is occupied by the current tavern. The grand mansion attracted the prominent people of its day, including the famous Samuel Pepys. The pub was first mentioned in 1723 and was named The Dog and Duck. Still at that time, the area was not completely built out. Henderson’s book tells us. 

“The field across the road from The dog and duck had become a well-known venue for duels. None more famous than the two brothers, who tragically settled their differences there. In 1692, in love with the same woman, who sat on a nearby bank to watch the contest, they each took 20 paces, turned and fired, and mortally wounded each other. It was said that the grass never again grew from the ground over which they paced, nor from the bank on which the young woman had watched the duel. The legend of the term Field of 40 Footsteps brought sightseers to Bloomsbury for another 100 years. Reverend John Wesley, of Methodist fame, went looking for the footsteps late in his life and thought he found them considering the steps as marks of the Lord's hatred of dueling. Life as a pub continued for surviving duels, and others who were alive enough to walk into The Dog and Duck pub. A man named John Creed became the landlord in 1762, and recognized the importance of the next-door British Museum, which had been built ten years earlier. He changed the name to The British Museum Tavern. The British Museum got its start from a donation of collectibles made by Sir Hans Sloane, a prominent doctor and scientist of his day. The King and Parliament took action and, starting with Sloane's items, commissioned the establishment of the museum. Sir Hans is the distinguished gentleman that has adorned The Museum Tavern sign for many years. He looks down at you as you walk in the door today.” 

Thanks, Sir Hans, we still remember your generosity. The pub changed ownership and was rebuilt in 1789, just in time for a rough period for pubs.

In the early 1800s there was an economic recession after The Napoleonic Wars. Also, The Beer House Act of 1830 allowed anyone to sell beer from a premise without a license, and there was a growing Temperance Movement. All of this depressed the business of existing pubs, but The Museum Tavern continued to do relatively well, probably due, at least in part, to having a bit of a monopoly. The Estate landlord no longer permitted the building of new public houses in the area. The tavern was rebuilt again in midcentury, to which Author John Henderson calls, 

“The state of the art of pub architecture in 1850s.” 

The design was by famed Architect William Finch Hill, and is one of the few surviving, well, kind of surviving, examples of his work. Ted Bruning tells us,

“Hill was best known as a designer of early music halls, and was one of the first pub Architects to develop a distinct design personality, especially in his handling of interiors. But sadly, the four partitions with which Hill subdivided the bars are long gone. In fact, nothing survives of Hill's interior except for the elegant mahogany bar back, even then, the glass has been replaced. But hey, don't let what I just read you from Ted’s book get you down. Today's pub is still very beautiful, and well reflects its original Victorian style. In the last half of the 1800s, the name morphed to just The Museum Tavern and the exterior was set to what we have today." 

Okay, let's talk about famous associations with the pub.

To start, let's go back to the establishment of The British Museum next door. Part of the original museum was the Reading Room, basically a grand library. This was an irresistible attraction for scholars and would be scholars, including a German immigrant who lived in near poverty with his wife and kids in Soho in a too small apartment. He was educated, but perpetually short of cash, and needed to get out of the house to do some study and think about his favorite subject, economics.

The British Library was perfect for him. He was there so often that they gave him his own desk. This fella was Karl Marx. He often is associated with The Museum tavern, but there is no actual record of him going there. But let's look at the evidence. 

First. It is known that Marx was a regular patron of The Reading Room. This is where he did his research for Das Kapital. 

Two. The public bar section of The Museum Tavern was well established as a retreat for denizens of the Reading Room. That was certainly well documented by the 1890s. 

Three. The Reading Room opened in May of 1857, and the tavern rebuild was done in 1855. So, it was a fine new pub right across away, just waiting for thirsty researchers needing a break. 

And finally, this is the big one. Marx was German and accordingly a beer lover. 

I think it proves the case beyond doubt. Karl Marx had to have been a patron of The Museum Tavern. 

Doctor Arthur Conan Doyle knew the pub as well. It is the model for his, 

“Alpha Inn near the museum” 

as mentioned in the story The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle.

So let me wrap up by again quoting the Poet Tambi,  

“Don't get Soho-itis”

and just hang over there in Fitzrovia. Take a stroll over to The Museum Tavern as well. You'll be glad you did.” 

Well, dear Listeners. That wraps up the second and final episode of our Fitzrovia Pubcast. I hope you enjoyed them. Please subscribe, thumbs up, like and all that. And you can always drop me a line at the email in the notes hosteric@historiclondonpubcast.com. Until next time. Cheers!