Exploring London's Pubs: Five Pubs, Five Stories (Volume 2)

London is famous for its many pubs, most of which have an intriguing tale or two to tell.

In this video we’ll be visiting five such taverns and examining their long histories which, amongst other things, include a watery gallows, a pub with an important American link, a cheeky parrot, and a tragic true story that inspired Charles Dickens…

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this selection of historic inns and, if you’d like to suggest other London pubs of note for future episodes of this series, please do let me know in the comments!

Chapters in this video:

0.00 Intro

1.04 The Prospect of Whitby, E1

5.09 The Mayflower, SE16

10.10 Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, EC4

15.39 Dirty Dicks, EC2

20.44 The Cartlon Tavern, NW6

26.00 Outro

If you missed the first episode of this series on London’s historic pubs, you can watch it here:

If you’d like to hear Danny John Jules’ interview with the BBC regarding the Carlton Tavern, you can listen to that here:

Thank you so much to all of you who support this channel; your kind words really do inspire me, and give me the best encouragement I could possibly ask for.

If you haven’t yet subscribed, I’d appreciate it very much if you could please consider doing so, as this will ensure you don’t miss out on any future content, as well as helping the channel to grow. Likes and shares are also very welcome!

If you’d like more London based history and trivia, please be sure to visit my website:

And if you’d like a London-themed gift (or simply wish to treat yourself), my Etsy store- robsonlinedesigns- has an array of mugs featuring hand-drawn designs of tube trains, taxis, buses and so on.

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Credits:
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Beer Bubbles animation by Jim Mamay
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Music used in this video:
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Royalty Free Bar Jazz Piano (gemafrei)
royalty free Music by Giorgio Di Campo for FreeSound Music
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Drunken Sailor (Cooper Cannell)
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A Robust Crew, Royalty Free Music (Darren Curtis Music)
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Baroque Coffee House (Doug Maxwell, Media Right Productions)
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Champagne Sound Effect: Everyday Cinematic Sounds
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Signal to Noise (Scott Buckley, Royalty Free Music)
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Heavy Heart (Kevin MacLeod)
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George Street Shuffle (Kevin MacLeod)
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Thank you so much again for watching, friends.

Stay well and please be sure to stay tuned!

[patrickdlh]

Excellent, a similar thing happened to the Greyhound in Sydenham South London, a famous pub with a long history, developers boarded it up and in spite of planning protections and extended arguments from the locals it mysteriously burn down, the developers thought they had it made in the shade, clapping all the way to the Bank. Unfortunately for them the local authorities forced them to rebuild, as you said brick by brick even down to the two stone greyhounds at the main entrance.

[yuniyonson]

Great videos. Many happy memories for me. From a 79 year year old ex-pat lady, in Lutherstadt Wittenberg Germany. Thank you again. I hope to watch more of your work.

[alanaitcheson]

That was the best documentary about London pubs I've seen in a long time, and so well researched. If only the BBC made documentaries like this. A very big thanks for your hard work and brilliant videos.

[michaelking]

As an Irishman who avoids the so called Irish Pubs when away from home always found the great Old English Taverns full of atmosphere and history.!!!Want to a few more

[Rosa_moon_J]

i work at the mayflower! we unfortunately had to stop selling american stamps, i’m pretty sure it was over the course of the pandemic - but we’re very keen to get the american stamps back esp. for the tourists. it’s such a lovely unique part of the pub’s history :)

[johnhaggerty]

I live in Glasgow and feel more at home in London than any city in the world.
So glad to watch this tour of London's historic pubs - the first I visited was The Prospect of Whitby in 1969, mentioned in a Len Deighton novel.

[Arfabiscuit]

I used to love going to Narrow street with my Dad and Uncle in the 80s and 90s and visiting those pubs . Some wonderful memories both of those great guys are upstairs now and i live in another country . I always feel a great sense of comfort when i see something that looks unchanged from back in the day thank you i can still see myself laughing with them . Hope i get to go back to London some day i lived there for 48 years and still miss it .

[Chingfordassociates]

I love exploring the foreshore at low tide beneath The Propect of Whitby. Oyster shells and fragments of old tiles and bottles from centuries past are everwhere.

[MrTumshie]

I can only wish YouTube and this channel had been around when I lived down there from 1988-1993. You have a way of making me want to investigate places that the usual tourist stuff doesn't. I'm always more interested in the history of ordinary folk much more than the kings and queens pish.

[radeakins]

The Prospect of Whitby was my great Grandfathers old haunt. He was the dock constable for Shadwell Basin and the head bell ringer at St Pauls Shadwell just around the corner. Dave Trumble. My great uncle is also buried in that churchyard but he has no headstone, instead they planted a plum tree that still grows in the yard.

[AliShafiei-ti]

I'm amazed at the beauty of London.👍🧿🇬🇧

[liamkatt]

My father lived in London in the mid/late 1930s. He always told me about DD's. In 1974 I visited only to find that, apart from sawdust on the floor, it was remarkably clean. When I got home I told mt father. He said I should have visited downstairs, not the upstairs part. So about a year later I did. What a difference!

[StephenBranney]

That must be the first time in yonks I have watched a youtube doc all the way through. Truly fascinating. Absolutely brilliant.

[jamesellsworth]

For several years, I was a member of CAMRA. When in London, we visited their top pubs of whatever year. I was driven as much in search of pub food and decor. This is a fine video, showing much I had missed out. The Old Cheshire Cheese is the only pub in this video I visited.

[jackyglazebrook]

I first went to Dirty Dicks in 1968.. I still have a fish In an envelope that told your fortune.
I can still remember standing agog at the cobwebs inthe ceiling.. We went down stairs to see the cake and table covered in cobwebs....

[paulwilson]

This channel is simply brilliant. Robslondon may not have many subscribers but is a golden nugget in a mountain of dross. Please keep this up because some of us appreciate quality when we see it!

[iainsan]

This is an excellent and very well-made and researched documentary. Thank you for making it. I'm sure many tourists will find it very useful and interesting when planning their visit to London.

[berylbicheno]

I really enjoyed that episode. I went to Dirty Dicks in the 1960's and it had so much atmosphere. Th

In the bar there were beer barrels for tables and sawdust on the floor and lots of cobwebs hanging from the ceiling and in a different room there was a big table laid out with food for the wedding reception all covered in dirt and cobwebs everywhere. What a pity I didn't take a camera! Anyway, it was great learning about the other old pubs I look forward to your next volume!

[brianparker]

That's my trips to London sorted for another year! Thanks Rob. You really should be making documentaries for large, mainstream companies - right up there with anything on Channel 5, BBC4, Yesterday etc. etc. 😃

[ralph]

As ever, a fab video which I found facinating, particulary the last story - justice ! Well done you.