Inns and Taverns of Old London | Page 2

COFFEE-HOUSE JOHN DRYDEN
JOSEPH ADDISON SIR RICHARD STEELE LION'S HEAD AT
BUTTON'S COFFEE-HOUSE BRITISH COFFEE-HOUSE
SLAUGHTER'S COFFEE-HOUSE OLD PALACE YARD,
WESTMINSTER DON SALTERO'S COFFEE-HOUSE ST JAMES'S
STREET, SHOWING WHITE'S ON THE LEFT AND BROOKS'S ON
THE RIGHT THE BRILLIANTS "PROMISED HORRORS OF THE
FRENCH INVASION" GAMBLING SALOON AT BROOKS'S
CLUB TICKETS FOR VAUXHALL ENTRANCE TO VAUXHALL
THE CITIZEN AT VAUXHALL SCENE AT VAUXHALL
VENETIAN MASQUERADE AT RANELAGH, 1749 THE
ASSAULT ON DR. JOHN HILL AT RANELAGH MARYLEBONE
GARDENS WHITE CONDUIT HOUSE BAGNIGGE WELLS
FINCH'S GROTTO, SOUTHWARK

I.
INNS AND TAVERNS OF OLD LONDON.

CHAPTER I
.
FAMOUS SOUTHWARK INNS.

Unique among the quaint maps of old London is one which traces the
ground-plan of Southwark as it appeared early in the sixteenth century.
It is not the kind of map which would ensure examination honours for
its author were he competing among schoolboys of the twentieth
century, but it has a quality of archaic simplicity which makes it a more
precious possession than the best examples of modern cartography.
Drawn on the principle that a minimum of lines and a maximum of
description are the best aid to the imagination, this plan of Southwark
indicates the main routes of thoroughfare with a few bold strokes, and
then tills in the blanks with queer little drawings of churches and inns,
the former depicted in delightfully distorted perspective and the latter
by two or three half-circular strokes. That there may be no confusion
between church and inn, the possibility of which is suggested by the
fact that several of the latter are adorned with spire-like embellishments,
the sixteenth-century cartographer told which were which in so many
words. It is by close attention to the letter-press, and by observing the
frequent appearance of names which have age-long association with
houses of entertainment, that the student of this map awakens to the
conviction that ancient Southwark rejoiced in a more than generous
provision of inns.
Such was the case from the earliest period of which there is any record.
The explanation is simple. The name of the borough supplies the clue.
Southwark is really the south-work of London, that is, the southern
defence or fortification of the city. The Thames is here a moat of
spacious breadth and formidable depth, yet the Romans did not trust to
that defence alone, but threw up further obstacles for any enemy
approaching the city from the south. It was from that direction assault
was most likely to come. From the western and southern counties of
England, and, above all, from the Continent, this was the high road into
the capital.
All this had a natural result in times of peace. As London Bridge was
the only causeway over the Thames, and as the High street of
Southwark was the southern continuation of that causeway, it followed
that diplomatic visitors from the Continent and the countless traders
who had business in the capital were obliged to use this route coming
and going. The logical result of this constant traffic is seen in the
countless inns of the district. In the great majority of cases those

visitors who had business in the city itself during the day elected to
make their headquarters for the night on the southern shore of the
Thames.
Although no definite evidence is available, it is reasonable to conclude
that the most ancient inns of Southwark were established at least as
early as the most ancient hostelries of the city itself. To which, however,
the prize of seniority is to be awarded can never be known. Yet on one
matter there can be no dispute. Pride of place among the inns of
Southwark belongs unquestionably to the Tabard. Not that it is the most
ancient, or has played the most conspicuous part in the social or
political life of the borough, but because the hand of the poet has lifted
it from the realm of the actual and given it an enduring niche in the
world of imagination.
No evidence is available to establish the actual date when the Tabard
was built; Stow speaks of it as among the "most ancient" of the locality;
but the nearest approach to definite dating assigns the inn to the early
fourteenth century. One antiquary indeed fixes the earliest distinct
record of the site of the inn in 1304, soon after which the Abbot of
Hyde, whose abbey was in the neighbourhood of Winchester, here built
himself a town mansion and probably at the same time a hostelry for
travellers. Three years later the Abbot secured a license to erect a
chapel close by the inn. It seems likely, then, that the Tabard had its
origin as an adjunct of the town house of a Hampshire ecclesiastic.
But in the early history of the hostelry no fact stands out