EATING IN LONDON - London 2015 - page 653

classic pubs are national treasures, with great cultural value and rich history, not to
mention good beer and grub.
Their odd names can go back hundreds of years. Because so many medieval
pub-goers were illiterate, pubs were simply named for the picture hung outside
(e.g., The Crooked Stick, The Queen's Arms—meaning her coat of arms).
The Golden Age for pub-building was in the late Victorian era (c. 1880-1905),
when pubs were independently owned and land prices were high enough to make it
worthwhile to invest in fixing them up. The politics were pro-pub as well: Conser-
vatives, backed by Big Beer, were in, and temperance-minded Liberals were out.
Especially in class-conscious Victorian times, traditional pubs were divided in-
to sections by elaborate screens (now mostly gone), allowing the wealthy to drink
in a more refined setting, while commoners congregated on the pub's rougher side.
These were really “public houses,” featuring nooks (snugs) for groups and clubs to
meet, friends and lovers to rendezvous, and families to get out of the house at night.
Historic pubs still dot the London cityscape. The only place to see the very
oldest-style tavern in the “domestic tradition” is at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese,
which was rebuilt in 1667 (after the Great Fire) from a 16th-century tavern (see de-
scription on here ; £ 5-10 pub grub, £ 9-14 meals in the restaurant, open daily, 145
Fleet Street, Tube: Blackfriars, tel. [phone]). Imagine this mazelike place,
with three separate bars, in the pre-Victorian era: With no bar, drinkers gathered
around the fireplaces, while tap boys shuttled tankards up from the cellar. (This was
long before barroom taps were connected to casks in the cellar. Oh, and don't say
“keg”—that's a gassy modern thing.)
Late-Victorian pubs are more common, such as the lovingly restored 1897
Princess Louise (daily midday until 23:00, lunch and dinner served in less atmo-
spheric upstairs lounge Mon-Fri, no food Sat-Sun, 208 High Holborn, see map
on here , Tube: Holborn, tel. [phone]). These places are fancy, often with
heavy embossed wallpaper ceilings, decorative tile work, fine-etched glass, ornate
carved stillions (the big central hutch for storing bottles and glass), and even urinals
equipped with a place to set your glass.
London's best Art Nouveau pub is The Black Friar (c. 1900-1915), with fine
carved capitals, lamp holders, and quirky phrases worked into the decor ( £ 9-15
meals, daily 10:00-23:00, outdoor seating, 174 Queen Victoria Street, Tube: Black-
friars, tel. [phone]).