The Cockpit

                                             Season 2 Episode 4 The Lamb and Flag

Geoff congratulates Jonnie on guessing Tam's age to the nearest 100

Housed in a 17th century building refaced in brick in 1958 the first mention of a pub on the site of the Lamb and Flag in Covent Garden was in 1772 when it was known as the Coopers Arms. The name was changed to the Lamb and Flag in 1833. The name refers to a representation of  Jesus Christ as Agnus Dei, the 'Lamb of God' featuring a lamb holding a banner symbolizing Christ's victory over death. A favourite of Charles Dickens the pub became known for staging bare knuckle prize fights, earning it the nickname the Bucket of Blood. In 1679, long before the pub was there, the poet John Dryden was attacked in the adjoining alleyway by thugs in the pay of Charles II, offended by some satirical verses Dryden had penned about the King's mistress Louise de Keroulle

Address: 33 Rose Street, London WC2E 9EB

Season 2 Episode 3 The Blackfriar

Three very jolly friars

IOne of London's most iconic pubs, the distinctive, wedge-shaped Blackfriar has stood proudly beside Blackfriars Bridge on the site of the ancient Dominican Blackfriars Priory since 1875. In 1905 the building was redesigned  by the Arts and Crafts architect Herbert Fuller Clark, along with a sublime interior by artist Henry Poole and sculptor Frederick Calcott, featuring colourful mosaics and sculptures of jolly friars. As Tam says, 'Come and see it for yourself because it blows away everybody who comes in here'.

Address: 174 Queen Victoria Street, London EC4V 4EG

Season 2 Episode 2 The Old Bell, Fleet Street

The Old Bell was built by Sir Christopher Wren in 1678 to house the masons rebuilding St Bride's church after the Great Fire. In 1500, long before the pub was built, the alleyway off Fleet Street that now runs along the back of the pub was filled with one of England's first printing presses, operated by William  Caxton's apprentice Wynkyn de Worde.

Address: 95 Fleet Street, EC4

Episode 12  The Devereux, Middle Temple

Not sure Isaac Newton would have seen very far standing on the shoulders of that lot...

The Isaac Newton Corner in the Devereux, the pub where the first ever TimeTable London was recorded.  Supremely run by popular mine host and quiz master Tony Bennett, it is a favourite of the team and the popular choice for our Christmas special starring Mark Mason and Patrick Kidd.

Address: 20 Devereux Court, Temple, London WC2R 3JJ

Episode 11  The Freemasons Arms, Hampstead

 A rose between three thorns...

The Freemasons Arms sits on Downshire Hill, close to Hampstead Heath, and is often described as London's country pub. The original pub was built in 1819 as part of the development of Downshire Hill, observed by the poet John Keats, who lived just down the road, as one of 'the half-built houses opposite'  The present pub, which was built in the 1930s, boasts the only Skittles Alley in London, tucked away in the pub cellars, where every year the London Skittles World Championships is held.

Address:  32 Downshire Hill, London NW3 1NT

Episode 10  The Champion, Fitzrovia

We were asked to stay behind the snob screen...

The Champion sits proudly in Fitzrovia, an area north of Oxford Street named for former landowners the Fitzroys, Dukes of Grafton. It was built around 1865 and retains a classic Victorian interior, one of the few pubs left sporting a 'snob screen', designed to shield posh drinkers from the gaze of the bar staff. The Champion is renowned for its stained glass windows showing images of various Victorian 'champions' from cricketer W.G. Grace to Florence Nightingale and Captain Matthew Webb, first person to swim the Channel, to Edward Whymper, first person to climb the Matterhorn. They are the work of Ann Sotheron and were installed in 1989.

Address: 13 Wells Street, London W1T 3PA

Episode 9  The Crown Tavern, Camberwell Green

The Apollo Lounge where Lenin met Stalin and where the team recorded with historian Giles Milton. Just in case, we are cleverly disguised.

The Crown Tavern, which was built in the early 19th century and given a Victorian makeover in the 1890s,  overlooks Camberwell Green the setting for the famous pickpocketing scene from Oliver Twist as well as the staring point for the world's first May Day March in 1890. Lenin and Stalin are alleged to have met for the first time at the Crown and Anchor, as it then was, in 1905, while Lenin was working on the Socialist newspaper Iskra, which was published nearby, and Stalin was staying in London studying how to be a Bolshevik. The film Notes on a Scandal, starring Dame Judi Dench, was filmed in the Crown's Apollo Lounge

Address: 43 Clerkenwell Green, Clerkenwell, London EC1R 0EG

Episode 8  The Golden Lion, Romford

Crikey! What did Romford do to deserve this?

The Golden Lion in Romford is said to be Britain's second oldest pub with a history dating back as far as 1440 or earlier - it is certainly Romford's oldest building. One distinguished owner back in the day was the 17th century philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon who died of cold while inventing the frozen chicken by stuffing a dead chicken with snow to prove that freezing it would preserve it.  One of Bacon's guests was none other than  William Shakespeare who was seeking a bit of pub comfort after upsetting Queen Elizabeth I. Like so many ancient pubs the Golden Lion is said to be haunted, in this case by a White Lady who held her wedding reception at the pub and was later murdered in Harold Hill...

Address: 2 High Street, Romford RM1 1HR

Episode 7  The Cockpit, St Andrew's Hill

Oh dear. What have they done with Tam?

'The name Cockpit accurately describes what this pub was - a cockpit where male chickens would fight to the death while spectators watched from the gallery - which is still there above the bar - and bet on the outcome. Cockfighting was banned in 1835 and the Cock Pit as it then was became the Three Castles but was re-named The Cockpit in 1970 after being renovated. The present building dates from 1860 and is said to stand close to the site of a house owned by William Shakespeare, when he was working at the nearby Blackfriars Playhouse (now Ireland Yard).

Address: St Andrew's Hill, London EC4

Episode 6  Jamaica Wine House, St Michael's Alley

'In the evening to the Coffee House and found much pleasure in it through the diversity of company and discourse.'  - Samuel Pepys 

''Here stood the first London coffee house at the sign of Pasqua Rosee's Head, 1652.' So says the plaque on the wall of the Jamaica Wine House, tucked away down a small alleyway off Cornhill in the heart of the City of London. Pasqua Rosee, variously said to be Greek or Armenian, worked for a merchant of the Levant Company who started importing coffee from Turkey and helped Rosee set up  the coffee house from where to sell it. Samuel Pepys paid a visit, the idea caught on, and within a few years there were some 500 coffee houses in London. They were popular with businessmen, politicians and intellectuals as places to meet and talk over the news  and issues of the day. Eventually they began selling wines and ales as well as coffee, setting the scene for London's thriving pub culture. Pasqua Rosee's became a tavern and in 1885 was rebuilt as the wine house we see today.

Address: St Michael's Alley, London EC3V 9DS

Episode 5  The Ship, Talbot Court

Scary what you find hidden down alleyways nowadays

The Ship, now a Nicholson's pub,  is tucked away down a hidden alleyway between Gracechurch Street and Eastcheap in the City called Talbot Court, a Talbot being a breed of hunting dog, now extinct. Previously a coaching inn called the Talbot stood on the site but this burned down in the Great Fire of London in 1666 and the pub was rebuilt and renamed The Ship in honour of the dockworkers and deckhands who used to drink at the pub.

Address: 11 Talbot Court,  London EC3V 0BP

Episode 4  The Old Doctor Butler's Head, Mason's Avenue

Established in 1610 and rebuilt in 1666 after the Great Fire the pub was named after Dr Butler, physician to the Court of James I. Dr Butler regarded himself as a specialist on nerve disorders and came up with a number of miracle cures such as dropping clients into the Thames off London Bridge and firing pistols to scare epileptics out of their condition. He also concocted a medicinal ale which was dispensed at a number of pubs around the City bearing the sign of Dr Butler’s Head. The Old Dr Butler’s Head is the last of these pubs to survive although sadly they no longer serve Dr Butler’s Ale.

Address: 2 Mason’s Avenue, London EC2V 5BT

Episode 3  The Edgar Wallace, Essex Street

' I'm not sure they are completely believing him! '

The Edgar Wallace, which dates back to 1777, was originally known as the Essex Head and was patronised by none other than Dr Samuel Johnson, who in 1783 formed the Essex Head Club here with his friend the physician Richard Brocklesby. Members of the Essex Head Club dined at the Essex Head three times a week and were each required to spend a minimum of sixpence and leave a penny for the waiter.

In 1975 the pub was renamed the Edgar Wallace in honour of the centenary of the crime writer’s birth. Edgar Wallace was a hero of nearby Fleet Street, a prodigious journalist and author who wrote over 170 novels and countless short stories and screenplays and is perhaps best remembered as A) being the first journalist ever sacked by the Daily Mail and B) for creating King Kong, during his time as a screenwriter in Hollywood. And if you want to read any of the books that made Edgar Wallace so popular in the early 20th century then there are dozens of his novels lining the windowsills of the pub.

Address: 40 Essex Street, Temple, London WC2R 3JE

Episode 2  The Sherlock Holmes, Northumberland Avenue

' I never saw a more villainous crew, Dr Watson! '

Opened in the 1880s as a small hotel the Northumberland Hotel, later the Northumberland Arms, The Sherlock Holmes became one of London’s first themed pubs when it opened under its present name in 1957.

The interior of the pub is deliciously late Victorian while upstairs on the first floor there is a faithful recreation of Sherlock Holmes’ Baker Street study along with rare memorabilia that was originally brought together and displayed at the Festival of Britain in 1951.

The Victorian Turkish Baths frequented by Holmes and Watson stood next to the hotel at 25 Northumberland Avenue while it is believed that this is the Northumberland Hotel where Sir Henry Baskerville stays on arriving in London from Canada in The Hound of the Baskervilles. A two minute walk from the pub is the famous green door entrance to Scotland Yard, work place of Holmes’ detective colleague Inspector Lestrade.

A must for Sherlock Holmes fans and a Northumberland Avenue landmark.

Address: 10 Northumberland Street, London WC2N 5DB

Episode 1  The Devereux, Middle Temple

The Devereux Pub takes its name from Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, whose London residence, Essex House, stood on the site of what is now Essex Street.

The Devereux opened in 1677 as The Grecian Coffee House, one of London’s earliest coffee houses, and was the favoured haunt of such luminaries as Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Edmund Halley and Hans Sloane - the pub even features a dedicated Sir Isaac Newton corner where we recorded the first ever episode of TimeTable London - in the hope that some of the great man’s genius might rub off on us!

The Devereux opened as an independent pub in 2019, owned and superbly run by our excellent mine host Tony Bennett.

Address: 20 Devereux Court, Temple, London WC2R 3JJ