Neighbourhood news, features, and comment
On Saturday 4 July some of Fitzrovia's hospitality traders will take a small, tentative step forward as pubs, cafes and restaurants open for the first time for more than three months, after the government eased Covid-19 restrictions. A handwritten sign on the door of a pub in Fitzrovia welcomes punters back for 4 July. Only …
Continue reading "When Saturday comes, Fitzrovia will limp back to life"
Tenants of one of the smallest and most well-loved pubs in Fitzrovia are appealing for funds from its customers to enable it to re-open when social distancing measures are relaxed and London returns to some sort of normality, whenever that may be. Bradley's Spanish Bar, tucked away off Oxford Street in the tiny single-track lane …
A Fitzrovia pub is gaining a lot of attention over the past week for all the wrong reasons. For the past five years the Duke of York in Rathbone Street has had two large images of Prince Andrew emblazoned on the outside of the building after special permission was granted by the Royal Household. But …
Continue reading "Pub signs of Prince Andrew “are going nowhere” says landlord"
A Fitzrovia pub is hosting an all day comedy medley this Saturday with performers raising money for a cancer charity. "We will have 42 comedians -- no one famous I'm afraid -- from the London open mic scene performing over eight hours," says Jack Wheeler who is organising the event. "We have eight one hour …
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Above the Newman Arms pub in Rathbone Street there is a bricked up window with a picture of a young woman. In the painting she can be seen in a nightdress and little cap which partly covers her long red hair. She peers down onto the street below with her bare arms resting against the horizontal …
Continue reading "Must we kiss goodbye to Rathbone Street’s young lady of the night?"
The George and Dragon in Fitzrovia is to become the only pub of its kind in the West End when it starts selling its own brand of beer brewed on the premises early next year. The pub opened again this autumn after changing hands and the new owners Ray Corner and Charles Gardner have given it a light renovation and …
Continue reading "A Fitzrovia pub is brewing its own beer on the premises"
A guided walk to visit and learn about the history of some of Fitzrovia's famous pubs will take place tonight (Tuesday 23 June 2015) as part of Fitzrovia Festival 2015. Mike Pentelow, editor and features editor of Fitzrovia News, co-author of A Pub Crawl Through History: The Ultimate Boozers’ Who’s Who, and Freedom Pass London: Make the …
Continue reading "Author leads a guided walk of Fitzrovia’s famous pubs"
The Newman Arms, on the corner of Rathbone Street and Newman Passage, has a fascinating history, and it is just entering a new and exciting chapter. It became a pub in 1860 after previous stints as a candle-makers, an ironmongers, a picture-framers and a brothel. In recent years an image of an old-fashioned prostitute was …
Continue reading "A taste of Cornwall comes to famous Rathbone Street pub"
The Tottenham public house is to undergo a refurbishment which includes changing the name of the pub, in proposals submitted by owners Mitchells & Butlers. Applications for listed building consent and other documents were lodged with Westminster City Council in March and show proposals for alterations to the facade, ground floor, new pub signs, and a …
Continue reading "Last pub on Oxford Street to revert to former name in refurbishment plans"
Fitzrovia's most well-known public house is to close for a year in order to undergo a complete refurbishment intended to restore it to how it would have looked in the late nineteenth-century when it first opened. Fitzrovia News has learned that The Fitzroy Tavern, on the corner of Charlotte Street and Windmill Street, will close in …
Continue reading "Fitzroy Tavern will close to undergo year-long refurbishment"
A pub where George Orwell used to drink and is widely assumed to be the setting for the proles pub in his dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four has been bought by West End property owners Shaftesbury plc who say they will continue to operate it as a public house. The pub has been closed since the beginning of the …
Continue reading "Newman Arms aka ‘the proles pub’ bought by Shaftesbury plc"
The last remaining boozer on Oxford Street could close its doors as a public house after Westminster Council decided last month to permit a change of use. The Tottenham public house at 6 Oxford Street, is located within the Hanway Conservation Area and is a Grade II* listed building. But the owners applied to Westminster …
Continue reading "Has time been called on the last pub on Oxford Street?"
Those miserablists at Westminster Council are at it again, or so it seems. Last year it was double yellow lines and stopping people driving their beloved cars into the West End and parking for free, this year it is stopping pubs using the streets as an extension of their licensed premises. It's easy to poke …
Continue reading "Drinking in moderation in Fitzrovia’s well-loved pubs"
By Mike Pentelow This is one of two pubs in Fitzrovia called the Green Man. In recent years it has become more popularly known as The Cider House due to its choice of 40 ciders on offer. "The Green Man is a traditional London Cider House in Fitzrovia, albeit a quirky one," says the pub's …
Continue reading "Fitzrovia pubs: 12. Green Man, 36 Riding House Street"
By Mike Pentelow A full size snooker table owned by ex-world champion John Pulman (1923-98) was available for hire upstairs at this pub throughout the 1970s and 80s. Pulman, who was world champion from 1957 to 1968, kept it here so he could practise when in London. Later he became a television commentator on the …
Continue reading "Fitzrovia pubs: 11. The Ship, 134 New Cavendish Street"
By Mike Pentelow Aneurin "Nye" Bevan, the founder of the National Health Service, and his wife Jennie Lee, creator of the Open University, drank in this pub at the end of Nye's life when they lived at 35 Gosfield Street. It was also the local of journalist John McCarthy, who worked at the nearby office …
Continue reading "Fitzrovia pubs: 10. Crown and Sceptre, 26-27 Foley Street"
By Mike Pentelow Newscaster Reginald “Boozie” Bosanquet was barred from here for demanding to be served ahead of others in the 1970s when the ITN studio was opposite in Wells Street. Until then he was said to have nipped in for a swift half during the adverts on News at Ten. After reading the news …
Continue reading "Fitzrovia pubs: 9. Kings Arms, 68 Great Titchfield Street"
By Mike Pentelow This pub dates back to at least 1771. The pub has some very large glass lanterns hanging from the first floor. It is one of many Samuel Smiths pubs in Fitzrovia.
By Mike Pentelow Orchestral conductor Henry Wood (1869-1944) nicknamed the pub "the Gluepot" because his musicians got "stuck" there too long during intervals of the concerts in the nearby Queen's Hall at 4 Langham Place (which was destroyed by bombs in 1941). Eventually he arranged for a man with a handbell to summon them back …
Continue reading "Fitzrovia pubs: 7. The George, 55 Great Portland Street"
By Mike Pentelow Author and playwright J B Priestley used to drink here when doing his inspirational radio talks in Broadcasting House during the second world war. Once his life was saved when he did an unscheduled extra talk while his hotel was being bombed. Another regular was the bandleader Billy Cotton whose Sunday radio …
Continue reading "Fitzrovia pubs: 6. Yorkshire Grey, 46 Langham Street"
