Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
If you were to detour two blocks south on Bread Street (to the corner of Bread and
Cannon streets), you would not see even a trace of the
Mermaid Tavern,
Shakespeare's
favorite haunt—but that's where it stood. In the early 1600s, “Sweet Will” would meet
Ben Jonson, Sir Walter Raleigh, and John Donne at the Mermaid for food, ale, and literary
conversation. Francis Beaumont, one of the group, wrote: “What things have we seen
/ Done at the Mermaid! heard words that have been / So nimble, and so full of subtle
flame
...
”
Cockney Rhyming Slang
The East End (specifically, the area around the Church of St. Mary-le-Bow) is
known as the traditional home of the Cockneys. This colorful, working-class group
spoke in a quirky pastiche that was the opposite of the Queen's English...think
