Historic London Pubcast

Islington Pubs - Fringe Theatre to Diamond Heist Plans

• Eric Blair • Season 1 • Episode 53

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Fringe theatre upstairs. True crime downstairs. Sheep theft somewhere along the way.

In this episode, we head to Islington — the London borough that clearly never got the memo about moderation. First stop: The Old Red Lion, a pub-turned-fringe-theatre-turned-launchpad for BAFTA and Olivier winners. Also: the site of 16th-century sword fights, pint glass capers, and at least one suspiciously emotional fashion criminal.

Then it’s a short walk (and a long fall from grace) to The Castle, where in 2015, a group of retirees planned the Hatton Garden heist over beers and crisps.

It’s the kind of episode that makes you think, “You can’t make this stuff up”.

Website: https://historiclondonpubcast.com

E-mail: hosteric@historiclondonpubcast.com

This is Podcast Producer, Andy Meddick. Today, we head to Islington - a London borough that doesn't just dabble in drama, it produces it.

We kick things off at The Old Red Lion, a centuries-old pub that reinvented itself as a fringe theater powerhouse. This pub theater has launched the careers of award-winning playwrights, directors, and actors, all while dodging fires, funding woes, and the occasional boxing ring.

Not content with just theatre. Islington pubs kick up a mess of true crime, real life shenanigans.  From a 16th-century street stabbing to an 18th-century sheep heist, The Old Red Lion’s history reads like a pub-themed police blotter.

That’s just the appetizer, because then we get to The Castle - another Islington watering hole that, in 2015, became the unexpected HQ of the Hatton Garden jewel heist. At 14 million pounds, this robbery is thought to be the largest burglary in English legal history. The twist? It was pulled off by a crew of pensioners that the British press called, “The Diamond Geezers”. Yes, really.

By the end of this episode, Eric will have us wondering how one neighborhood managed to squeeze in so much theatre, thievery, and thrills?

You want High-stakes fringe theatre? Geriatric jewel thieves? Islington says, “Hold my beer.”

Eric, we’re waiting in the wings, you’re on…

Today we're up in Islington in an area known as Angel, and we'll see why that is in just a bit. But let's start with the pub that's located at 418 Saint John Street, about a one-minute walk from the Angel tube station. This is The Old Red Lion Theatre Pub.  I first became aware of this pub from Dan Wiggins’ 2022 article about visiting all 24 pubs in Greater London, carrying the name Red Lion in some form.

Dan rated three categories on a 1 to 5 scale, and then took the average to rank all the Lions. The categories were: interior, exterior and sign. The highest rating achieved was 4.7 by The Old Red Lion in Kennington, but this pub, The Old Red Lion Theatre Pub, came in near the top with a 4.5 rating. So, I thought that made it worth investigating.

Dan's articles is linked in the notes and well worth checking out. The pub has quite a history, but I would like to tell you about the more recent history first, before we roll back the years a few centuries.

So, first, let's just go back to 1979. At that time, it was a standalone pub with a very respectable history. The owners at the time, Pauline and Tony Sheriff-Geary, were looking for a good use for the upstairs space. Different uses have been tried, including a boxing ring. Pauline and Tony finally decided to convert it to a black box studio theater space, and The Old Red Lion Theater Club was born.

The upstairs life as a small theater started off well. Folks seemed to like acting better than boxing and voted with their attendance. There was a hitch along the way. It resulted from a tragic fire on an escalator at King's Cross – St. Pancras tube station in November of 1987. The fire caused 31 fatalities and over 100 injuries, and as a result, new, stricter fire regulations were put in place throughout London. Many small theaters had to install improved fire escapes or face closure. The Old Red Lion was able to raise the funds to make the improvements, and thus continue operation. This is a testament to how well the theater was received.

A management change occur in 2000, and that's always a cause for concern, but not one beat was skipped. Taking over from Pauline and Tony were brothers, Damien and Lorcan Devine. With these fellows, the upward movement continued. Tragically, Lorcan died unexpectedly and suddenly in 2009 at age 52 from a brain aneurysm. Damien's immediate family pitched in to help becoming involved with various aspects of the theater operation. Under the Devines, the venue established itself as one of London's most prominent fringe theaters. For those of you who might be unfamiliar with the term, ‘Fringe Theater (I know it was new to me), it's basically the UK equivalent of what Yanks might call, ‘Off Broadway’, or even, Off-Broadway’. These are small, intimate venues, typically seating 50 to 150 people. They usually focus on experimental, new, or unconventional work and provide a space for emerging writers, actors and directors to test out bold ideas without a huge financial risk. The term ‘Fringe’ comes from the Edinburgh Festival of 1947, when eight uninvited theater companies showed up anyway, and staged performances ‘on the fringe’. From that humble beginning, The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is now the largest performing arts festival in the world. The trend caught on in London as well, beginning in the late 1960s, and theaters using pub space seemed to be a natural.

The Old Red Lion Theater's fame began to spread. It became known as a place where young playwrights, directors and actors could get a start. Distinguished alumni included: Abi Morgan, the award-winning Screenwriter of The Iron Lady and The Split; Joe Penhall, Creator of Netflix's Mindhunter, and an Olivier Award winner; Kathy Burke, BAFTA winning Actress and Director; Stephen Daldry, Oscar nominated Director of Billy Elliot and The Hours, and an Olivier Award winner; Penelope Skinner, winner of the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright; and Nina Raine, Olivier nominated Playwright of Tribes, and Director of Consent.

The Olivier Award is Britain's version of Broadway's Tony Award. It's considered Britain's most prestigious theater award. No small credential this.

In 2006, the theater itself won an award specifically for pub theaters, the Dan Crawford Pub Theater Award, a kind of fringe theater seal of excellence named after the man who invented the modern pub theater itself.

In 2015, someone realized that Arthur Miller's first play, written in 1936 (and that was long before he met Marilyn Monroe), had never been staged. The Old Red Lion hosted the world premiere of this play, entitled No Villain. Damien was able to make the theater work largely unfunded, in other words, not heavily subsidized by the Arts Council or big grants, which is a real accomplishment.

By 2024, Damien and his family felt that after a quarter century, it was time to pass on the torch. Fans of the pub and theater began to worry. Could such a rare institution continue under new owners? A collective sigh of relief occurred when it was announced that the ownership and operation would be transferred to the Cowardly Theater Limited, a company run by an actor couple, Janine Duvitski and Paul Bentall.

This happy news was seen as a continuation rather than a break, because those involved care so much about the theater's history. The Islington Tribune did a story last year at the point of Damien's departure. He said there were lots of special memories from the last 25 years, but one that immediately came to mind was when famed actor John Hurt came to watch a performance in the theater and ended up in the pub for the rest of the evening.

Damien told the Tribune,

“He was exactly what you would expect he would be like. He kept me up to about four in the morning and I wish I'd run a tape recorded to tape it. Just the anecdotes and just what he was talking about. Absolutely humble, engaging, funny and just such a genuinely nice man.”

Damien left with a long list of accomplishments and not just regarding the theater. On the pub's website is a 24-page document on the pub's history researched by Michael J Devine, who I believe is Damien's brother.

Let me tell you, fellow pub history fans, this is a rarity. I can think of only maybe five other London pubs that pay this much attention to their history. Thank you Divine Family. This is a wonderful source that I will refer to as, ‘Michael's History’. The link in the notesshows where you can download the full document.

Now, with you clued into the modern history of the pub, let's go back and find out what interesting things occurred over the previous decades, or in this case, previous centuries.

The pub claims a founding date of 1415, based on information provided in a couple of history books written in the 19th century. Hard documented evidence, land deeds and the like, have the pub operating in 1522. The location was a good one. Saint John's Road was a major route from the Midlands and north to Smithfield Market. Islington was a good stopping point. It had access to clean water from nearby springs and wells by the early 1400s Islington was becoming a small market village, eventually emerging as a place of permanent dairy herds and pens used for overnight storage of animals. Islington became a key link in the Smithfield market supply chain.

Michael's History speculates,

“The Old Red Lion probably began life as a private house, which began serving food and refreshment to passing travelers, and later evolved into a and or public house with sheep pens opposite and accommodation for travelers. The open fields also became a favorite place for Londoners to come and visit in medieval times.” 

A nice day in the country. The name The Red Lion was a popular name for inns from as far back as the 1200s. So, it might have just been chosen for no other reason than that but there's a competing theory. Assuming the pub was founded in 1415, the year before, an assassination plot to replace King Henry V was broken up and the plotters held, tried and convicted in a Southampton inn named The Red lion.

Henry V went on to France, achieved a marvelous victory at Agincourt, and won much favor in Britain. Could this Red Lion be named after its now famous counterpart in Southampton, demonstrating loyalty to the now famous king? Maybe.

The pub has been mentioned in several true crime events over the years. The first one going back to April of 1572.

John Stocker, a shoemaker, got into an argument with John Tyson, described as a yeoman, which is a small-scale farmer who owns his land. Tyson had to break off the argument and go to The Red Lion for a business appointment, but evidently Stocker would not let it go. He knew Tyson would pass this way coming back. So, he lay in wait and sprang into action when he saw him returning.

It must have been quite a row. Tyson was holding a sword in one hand and his cloak in the other, and Stocker had a sword and a dagger. Despite being down one dagger, Tyson eventually put his sword to good use and killed Stocker on the spot. Perhaps his libation at The Red Lion had improved his skills. I know some blokes who swear that they are better at darts, with two pints under their belt than completely sober.

Okay, onward through the years. In 1613, a charity benefactor named Alice Owen purchased some land next to The Red Lion and erected an almshouse for the poor. Alms Houses were low cost, long-term residences for what was called, ‘The Deserving Poor’ - elderly, widows or people who had fallen on hard times but were considered respectable. Sometime around 1730, the pub changed its name to The Welsh Harp, but this appears to only be for a couple of decades.

A book written in 1751 once again refers to it as The Red Lion. During this time the pub had a couple of famous patrons. First, Artist William Hogarth. The pub appears in the background of one of his paintings called, “Evening” - one of the paintings that make up Hogarth's Four Times a Day grouping. Also, the Scottish Poet and Playwright James Thompson was said to be a regular in the first half of the 18th century.

Thompson is most famous for his four-poem cycle entitled, “The Seasons”. This highly influential work was said to have inspired Painters Reynolds, Gainsborough and Turner, as well as Composer Haydn. Poet Thompson also wrote the words to rule Britannia! Later in the century, Thomas Paine frequented The Red Lion, where it said he wrote part of his famous work. “The Rights of Man.”

Famous pub lover Doctor Samuel Johnson also showed up there from time to time, but remember this was still on the edge of London and there were highwaymen about. The pub frequently appears in Old Bailey court records - cases of theft, highway robbery, and even worse. Want to hear about a few? Yeah, I thought you did!

In 1779, Mary Beecham, a servant to a school master in Islington, was attacked by two women at the end of the road by The Red Lion Corner in Islington. Various items of clothing were stolen, worth 11 shillings. The culprits, Elizabeth Lambert and Mary New were arrested, tried and found guilty, and sentenced to death. Wow! Tough justice! There had to be more to it for such a harsh penalty. Perhaps the victim was severely injured?

In 1787, a former employee broke into the pub via the cellar window and stole items worth 39 shillings. He was sentenced to transportation. In other words, a penal colony Down Under for seven years.

In 1803, a couple of teenagers, 17 and 18, were chatting at The Red Lion and, according to witnesses, hatched a plan to steal some sheep from one of the nearby pens. They were caught in the act of stealing 29 sheep, and claimed that they were helping the owner take them to market. When the owner testified that he knew nothing about such an arrangement, the two were convicted and sentenced to death.

It seems like sentencing lightened up a bit as the 1800s went on. A 63-year-old man was convicted of stealing property from Mary Hill, who ran the pub with her husband. The property was valued at ten shillings, and the thief was sentenced to two years in the House of Correction.

In 1820, Thomas Anthony was accused of embezzling five shillings and eight  pence from the pub landlord. Trusted to receive small sums of money from patrons, Anthony evidently pocketed the funds. Young Anthony, only 19, received three months in jail.

In February 1833, William Jones, a Baker, began to behave in a rowdy and argumentative manner at the pub. He pulled off his coat and said he would challenge any three men to a fight.

Side note don't you think he should have waited until there was boxing upstairs in the 1970s?

Okay, back to bad Billy Jones. No one took him up on this offer until the pub manager, Joseph Ashford, stepped up and said he'd take Jones up on his offer if they would move things outside to the street.

Bad Billy was thrilled and immediately went outside, at which point manager Ashford simply locked the door.

Jones became further agitated and was arrested by the police. At his bail hearing, he said that he was drunk and did not know what he was doing.

Well, that's no surprise, and I guess it wasn't to the magistrate either, but he was granted bail.

Having a greater pity for those making poor choices was a trend that seemed to continue through the 1800s, as evidenced by our last true crime story, at least for this pub.

In July of 1850, Harriet Fitter, a lady described as,

“A fashionably dressed female,”

was accused of stealing a drinking glass by the proprietor, Mr. Harvey.

A few nights before, Miss Fitter left The Old Red Lion at 1 in the morning, and was later seen nearby holding a drinking glass, apparently very drunk. She could not say why she had it.

The police took her to the station. Miss Fitter wept bitterly in front of the court and said she did not mean to take it. Proprietor Harvey explained that recently he had been plundered of glasses, but under the circumstance he did not want to press the charge. She was allowed to leave the court, and the judge told her to be grateful and thankful to Mr. Harvey for his charitable consideration.

Nice story with which to end our Red Lion true crime report, but stay tuned, our last pub today has a doozy of a crime story.

By the mid-1800s, the pub was a community hub. Meetings of mutual aid societies and inquests were regularly held there. In 1850, locals formed The Amicable Philanthropic Society at the pub with a mission to distribute bread and coal to the poor.

Near the end of the 1800s, around 1895, a married couple with different last names took up running the pub. Charles Dickerson and Amelia North. It's interesting that before coming to The Old Red Lion, they were involved in the theater in the East End. In 1889, they were brought up to court for staging plays without a license. Somehow they got out of that scrape and made enough money to buy the pub.

In 1898 to 1900 the pub was completely rebuilt. Much of the look of today's pub bears the mark of these two folks, including their initials on the building. They must have done something right. In 1994 the building became Grade II listed. The listing highlights,

“The handsome late Victorian frontage, all red brick terracotta flourishes and the brown parapet with the pub's name carved across it. Inside, original wooden glass fittings still survive. Given today's visitors a glimpse of 1899 design at work.” 

So, there you have it. There's a lot to say about this pub, and I think we've said it. So much history here, but drink up now. We need to move on, but I am confident this jury will be waiting for our return for some years to come.

Out to the street. Once your eyes adjust to the light, take a look over a block or so to your right. You'll be looking at what gives the whole area its name. The imposing pale stone building on the corner of Islington High Street.

I'll be up front. The Angel you see today, with its dome and office workers, is just a remnant, a glorified marker of a history far more sprawling and glorious. Before this was an intersection of tubes and traffic, it was the site of The Angel Inn which dates back to at least 1614. For centuries, it was not just a pub. It was a massive, essential coaching house on the Great North Road. The inn took its name from the Angel of Annunciation, the story in the Gospel of Luke, where the Angel Gabriel tells Mary she would soon bear a son.

That scene was supposedly depicted on the inside and was a fitting symbol of guidance and protection for travelers. The Great North Road beside which the inn was sited was the main highway between England and Scotland from medieval times until the 20th century. It became a coaching route used by mail coaches traveling between London, York and Edinburgh. The modern A1 mainly parallels the route of the Great North Road.

There were many inns along it, and there needed to be. During what was termed the Golden Era of Coaching - basically, the first half of the 1800s - a typical trip to Edinburgh took 3 to 4 days. If you stayed in inns along the way. If you had the money and the need for speed, there were express coaches that would go virtually nonstop, only breaking to change horse teams. They would get you to Edinburgh in about 45 hours.

Two days, nonstop on a horse drawn coach? No thanks. You can see why the railroads became so popular so fast. In the second half of the 19th century, you could get to Edinburgh by train from London in seven and a half to ten hours. Today, in our automobile, it's a little faster than the 1800s train, but not by much, 7 to 8 hours. But Angel’s heyday was in the coaching era, and it was in the right spot, just where London began in earnest. This was your jumping off point, so get a good rest before you start north or you've had a long day southward travel, and you needed a night's rest before taking on the big city.

This place was crammed with livestock traders, drovers, long haul stagecoaches, and weary guests. It was such a hub of activity that the famous artist William Hogarth immortalized its courtyard in his 1747 drawing, “The Stagecoach.”

In 1756, The Angel Inn site was bisected with the building of the new road. Stables were on the south side, and the inn was on the north side. What a hassle! But The Angel did benefit from the extra traffic the new road brought.

Like The Red Lion, The Angel claims to be where Thomas Paine did some writing of his famous book, “The Rights of Man.”

A rebuild in 1819 gave us the building we see today. As the 1800s continued, redevelopment of the area resulted in the inn being downsized and finally becoming just a pub. Plots on the property previously used by the inn became sites for houses and shops.

Truman's Brewery had the pub from 1896 until 1921, when it was sold and became a restaurant. It was popular and did well until fast food became the rage in the 1950s.

By 1959, the building was sold to the London County Council, and it began its journey to become office space, and that's its function today. Of course, besides being some eye candy when viewed from the street.

Just down from the corner at 3 Islington High Street, Wetherspoons opened a pub named The Angel in 1998, and since this was on a part of the original Angel Inn site, the tradition of having a pub on the property did continue. By 2024 Spoons had sold out and the pub opened under new management as The Peacock. Sorry that the name the Angel was discarded, but take heart, The Peacock was named for another coaching in which once stood nearby from 1564 until 1962. Besides, The Angel is remembered in other ways. It is one of the properties on the London Monopoly board. Indeed, the third cheapest, a house at that location on the board costs 50 pounds. But don't get too excited. In reality, a two-bedroom flat in this area is said to go just south of 1,500,000. And of course, The Angel is also the name of the tube stop and indeed the whole area around here.

Only a few other London pubs or inns have had tube stops or areas that take their name. This list of those may not be complete, but it does include Elephant & Castle, Fitzrovia, Manor House, Maida Vale, Royal Oak and Swiss Cottage.

So, tip your hat or blow a kiss to this appealing remnant of long-gone days. Okay, for our last stop, we are off to a pub just a four-minute walk away. The Castle at 54 Pentonville Road. A word of caution. Be careful when searching online about this pub, because the more famous Castle in Farringdon can come up. We discussed that one in Episode 44.

The footprint of this pub goes back to at least 1805 and started life as The Pitman Arms. It kept that name for most of its life, not really making much of a ripple in history, just tending to business. For some part of the 20th century, it was a Charrington pub. Since then, it has had a name change from The Penton Arms to The Castle in 2007, although it appears there was a time of madness when a horrible name, The Pint Pot, was adopted. I can't find when that came and went. Perhaps all involved had tried to cover it up. Ashamed of such a poor decision?

Well, they should be, but all is well. The Castle is a good name. It's a Young’s pub, and in 2023 it got a redo. It now has a modern, minimalist look to it, complete with a roof garden.

The pub gets good reviews. TripAdvisor shows 77% of the reviewers say that their experience was good or excellent.

So, nice pub, but as you might expect, there's a historical reason we'll be talking more about The Castle. What is that? Well, remember I promised a story about a walk just south of the law, didn't I? Well, here it comes. The Castle pub was where in 2015, a group of senior citizens planned the Hatton Garden Jewel Heist. To anyone watching, they looked like nothing more than a few old pensioners enjoying a quiet pint, swapping stories of the old days. In reality, they were drawing up plans for one of the most audacious robberies in British history.

These weren't just any retirees. This was a seasoned crew of old school criminals, and at the head of it sat Brian Reeder, a man whose name had long carried weight in London's underworld. Reeder had been at it since childhood. A Lewisham lad who graduated from shoplifting to the major leagues of crime. By the 1970s he was linked to the Baker Street bank raid. We covered that story in Episode 33 on Marylebone, and a decade later he was caught up in the laundering that followed the Brink's Mat gold robbery. Tabloids would later dub him, “The Guv'nor”, a title he seemed to wear with relish.

On paper, he was long past his prime, well into his 70s, suffering health problems, but for Reeder, retirement never really took. At The Castle, over pints and packets of crisps, the gang mapped out the Hatton Garden job. They talked through alarm systems, security patrols and concrete walls of the vault itself. Their conversation may have sounded like a harmless banter, but each detail was part of a master plan. Reeder's role wasn't to squeeze into the narrow lift shaft or haul out heavy bags of loot. He left that to his slightly younger associates. He was the mind that kept the moving parts in place. The strategist who pulled the threads together.

You know, for anyone thinking about a career change in this direction, be mindful that bank robbers and jewel thieves don't often get their holidays off. For the Baker Street job in 1971, the crooks, said to include Reeder, had to work two full weekends and a bank holiday, and Easter plans with the family? Forget about it.

This was the time this group from The Castle was going to target the Hatton Garden Safe deposit box facility at 88 to 90 Hatton Garden, a fortress tucked beneath a nondescript office building with hundreds of deposit boxes holding who knows how much loot. This was an experienced crew. Maybe too experienced. Besides Reeder, who was 76, there were two other career criminals well into their golden years. Terry Perkins, 67, and Kenny Collins, 74. Daniel Jones and Carl Wood, the youngsters were both 58 and had to do any of the heavy lifting. There may have been one or two others, but they were never identified. Disguised as gas engineers, they used the building lift shaft to get down to the basement, disable the alarm, and begin the process of breaking into the vault.

Incredibly, they ran into difficulties on the first day, left and came back two days later with an improved breeching strategy. Drilling through half a meter of reinforced concrete and ransacking 73 safe deposit boxes, they made off with roughly 14 million in cash, jewels and gold. The amount is cloudy because many of the box owners didn't want to elaborate on what they had in there or why.

From that point forward, the heat was on. The police used camera data to identify the likely suspects and the cars they used. It didn't help that the robbers were not exactly on the down low. In the weeks after the heist, they met in public at several places, including The Moon Underwater pub in Enfield, and of course, The Castle, where it all started.

The lookout man Collins talked about the details of the robbery, not knowing his car wa bugged. Reeder was caught on CCTV buying fish and chips, flashing a wad of stolen cash, and Jones buried some of his loot in a place no one would ever think to look. The back garden of his mother's house. Guess how long it took the police to figure that out?

Just a few weeks after the robbery, all identified robbers were arrested. Most got 6-to-7-year sentences upon conviction. A little on the light side, given their age. The post robbery surveillance audio and video had certainly helped seal their fate.

A 2016 article in The Independentprovides lots of details about the robbery, and includes a photo taken surreptitiously at The Castle showing Collins, Perkins and Reeder sipping suds and presumably talking about the job. It's linked in the notes.

When the story broke, the press loved it. It's kind of fun crime, where there was no violence, nobody got hurt, and the participants were a group of unlikely characters. They deemed the crew, “The Diamond Geezers”. Interestingly, only about a third of the loot was recovered. It was speculated that much of the loot was in gold bars and ended up in Spain for re melting, but who knows?

But you got to hand it to these old boys. This robbery is thought to be the largest burglary an English legal history. They took the advice of that well-known pub lover, Dylan Thomas,

“Do not go gently into that good night.” 

There have been three films or TV movies made based on this case, and a multi-part ITV docu series. The highest profile of these is the 2018 movie King of Thieves, with an all-star cast of veteran British actors Tom Courtney, Michael Gambon, Jim Broadbent, Ray Winstone and of course, they picked the perfect actor to play ringleader Brian Reeder - Michael Caine.

So, when you're in The Castle, you might want to check for hidden cameras before you start planning your,

“Dirty deeds done cheap.” 

Well, that's all our dirty deeds for today. Thanks so much for listening. If you feel up to dropping me a comment or suggestion, or if you know where the Diamond Geezers hid their loot, my email is in the notes.

Producer extraordinaire Andy is going to get us out of here, but first let me say, until next time, cheers.

This is Podcast Producer, Andy Meddick. Today’s episode captures something I often think about when walking past a British pub. From the outside, it might just look like a building — sometimes striking, sometimes plain, utilitarian, and perhaps, sadly, forgettable. But pubs were built with purpose: to serve their neighborhoods. Even the most dazzling of pubs such as London Gin Palaces are practical spaces, built for conversation, for comfort, and for community.

Yet, behind the frosted glass and below the surface, there's always more to discover, or risk missing. Most of us can sit down for a pint, meal or a show — like at The Old Red Lion - and leave without ever knowing we were surrounded by centuries of untold stories from those who came before us. Drama upstairs, duels downstairs, and the occasional jewel heist quietly plotted over beer and crisps in the corner booth.

Thankfully, this podcast exists to give us the backstory — the parts we don’t see, but should.

This episode reminds us that pubs are places that don’t just evolve — they rewrite themselves, one act at a time.

In Islington, a single building can be a 15th-century coaching inn, a boxing ring, and a stage for award-winning theatre — all before lunch. Stories unfold upstairs and downstairs, in rehearsals and in court records, in pint glasses and police files. This is a neighborhood that doesn’t separate the dramatic from the everyday — it layers them like the fringe I had in the ‘70s, or, yes, sadly, the mullet I wore in the ‘80s.

From fringe of another kind - theatre that shaped modern storytelling, to backroom plots and pensioner-led jewel heists, Islington isn’t just part of London’s history — it’s a reminder that the most remarkable places are rarely the loudest, flashiest, most obvious ones. They’re the ones that keep adapting, keep surprising, and keep their receipts to share with those who pay attention.

The plays may change. The cast rotates. But the setting? That stays unforgettable.

On our next episode, Episode 54, we’re kicking off a special two-part holiday mini-series. We’ll line up the pubs featured in The Historic London Pubcast against Time Out Magazine’s June 2024 article, “The Best Historic and Famous Pubs in London,”  by Laura Richards and Leonie Cooper. We’ll cover four remaining pubs not yet covered on the podcast yet mentioned by Richards and Cooper.

In Part One, we visit two legendary Camden institutions: The Good Mixer, and The Hawley Arms - both celebrated by Time Out for their rich ties to London’s musical and cultural history. Eric explores the history of the Camden area, and how these two pubs have rich ties to the Britpop era, legendary patrons like Blur, Oasis, and Amy Winehouse, highlighting how these venues became cultural landmarks in London’s music scene.

Until next time — keep your eyes and ears open for the stories hiding in plain sight. Or, to put it another way, remember, every pub has a story to tell, if you know where to look.