Caroline Roddis explores the boozy history of Covent Garden’s drinking culture
Tales of drunkards rampaging through London after marathon drinking sessions may be presented as marks of modern society’s degeneration but have, in fact, been told since Covent Garden began to develop into what we know and love today. Wild, faddish and occasionally surprising, the area’s evolving drinking culture has kept it on the map – and occasionally in the gutter – for over 500 years.
Granted to the Dukes of Bedford following the Reformation, Covent Garden was already well lubricated by the time of the 1552 Alehouse Act (the first licensing law). One of the area’s oldest recorded pubs was the Swan near Charing Cross, established in the 15th century. This pub, incidentally, was favoured by poet Ben Johnson as its barman Ralph always served him good ‘Canary’ – a sweet wine from the Canary Islands.
The abundance of alehouses, which have been a feature of English life since Roman times, was to be expected given that in 1584 there were 26 breweries in London, producing a whopping 648,900 barrels between them. Beer was, in fact, a much safer drink than the untreated water available and had experienced a surge in popularity thanks to the hopping technique introduced from Holland. Not only were half London’s brewers foreign but, as Pepys informs us, there was also a French tavern, Chatelaine’s, in Covent Garden.
One surviving pub from this era is the Lamb & Flag on Rose Street, which has records dating back to 1623 and whose back room gained notoriety as ‘the Bucket of Blood’ during the 17th century due to the bare knuckle boxing matches held there. Indeed, entertainment has always been an important accompaniment to drinking in Covent Garden and sports like boxing, bowling and even shooting have all taken place in pubs across the area. Moreover, it was not unusual for former sportsmen to become publicans in later life: boxer Ben Caunt, after whom Big Ben was supposedly named, ran the Coach & Horses on St Martin’s lane for a few years until 1851, when a fire tragically destroyed both the pub and the lives of his two children.
By the late 17th century, Bow Street was home to several notorious establishments, including the Cock, from whose balcony in 1663 Sir Charles Sedley drunkenly defecated before preaching to the enraged crowd gathered below. He was later fined £500 for inciting a riot, but was by no means the only well-heeled miscreant frequenting the area at the time.
On nearby Russell Street was Will’s Coffee House, whose upper room became famous as the place where wits would congregate. Poet John Dryden visited the place every day until his death in 1700, despite having been assaulted after emerging from it one evening in 1679.
Coffee houses, introduced to London in 1652, were places where, for a fixed admission price, you could relax with a coffee, cigar and pleasant company. Although runners were often sent to report major events, in 1713 writer Joseph Addison expanded the coffee houses’ relationship with the newspapers by establishing the famous ‘lion’s head’ postbox at Button’s coffee house, in which patrons could place private correspondence to the Guardian newspaper.
Unsurprisingly, not all coffee houses were reputable and the most notorious was Tom King’s marketplace shack, which opened in 1720 and, despite purporting to be a coffee house, was infamous for supplying alcohol and prostitutes to its clients. Frequented by such luminaries as Hogarth (in whose engraving Morning it can be seen), Fielding and Pope, it only opened after the taverns closed and was known “to all gentlemen to whom beds were unknown”.
By the mid 18th century the market was, according to the Tatler, “a strange assemblage of shed and penthouse, rude stall and crazy tenement, coffee-house and gin shop”. It was as common to find gin on market stands as it was to find it alongside ale and porter in taverns, and indeed the Rose, on the corner of Russell Street and Catherine Street, featured in the third painting of Hogarth’s Gin Lane series, which highlights the gin craze that peaked in the 1730s, when the average Londoner drank 14 gallons per year. Fortunately the 1736 Gin Act brought about a marked decline in gin drinking throughout the 18th century, although the fact that a distillery fire on Russell Street damaged houses in 1769 suggests spirits were still a problem for Covent Garden.
On a positive note, however, alcohol was often cited as a reason for actor Charles Macklin’s famed longevity. Reported to have lived to 107, the man who had acted alongside Garrick drank a daily pint of warm sugared stout at the Antelope in White Hart yard for over 30 years and even opened his own Piazza tavern in 1754. Here, you could have port, claret, or any other tipple for 3 shillings and, if you arrived before 4.10pm, could sit at the communal table and be served dinner by Macklin himself, who used to give lectures and performances when not attending to his guests. Unfortunately, this novel idea was swiftly copied and Macklin’s soon closed, although its owner kept drinking for a good 40 more years.
Throughout the 18th century programmes of theatrical or musical entertainment in pubs grew popular and Covent Garden boasted many a hotspot. The Cyder Cellars on Maiden Lane was one of the oldest and most celebrated of these – many of the most famous literary, theatrical and political figures of the age could be seen soaking there until morning, where “the song was sung and the wine was quaffed”. Places such as these used professional singers, unaccompanied by music, and frequently appear in the writings of patrons such as Thackeray.
A habitué of the area, Thackeray also enjoyed the Coal Hole, a riotous place which contemporaries argued was best seen at midnight, “then it is in its glory; the boxes stuffed to repletion – the room enveloped in a cloud of smoke, and thrilling with melody sweetly put in tune”. Although these places lost popularity in the second half of the 19th century, Evans Music-and-Supper Rooms on King Street lasted the longest. Recreated as the “Cave of Harmony” in Thackeray’s works, this venue originally offered music of a very ribald kind but later featured choirs as it moved towards respectability. Its smoky basement – with screens to conceal ladies who wished to watch – could accommodate around 1,200 respectable gentlemen and was famed for its good, if expensive, fare. The best way to get a drink was to grab one from a waiter as he flew past – apparently it was quite the art to capture one successfully.
Even as the popularity of these places waned, however, they were still “too late and too aristocratic for the mechanic”, as Dickens’s All The Year Round put it, and tavern-based concerts for the working classes (to which they could bring their wives) were established from the around the 1830s. By now, taverns had become the preserve of the lower classes and concerts were usually held in first floor rooms that were enlarged by the addition of adjacent bedrooms. One example of this was the King’s Arms on Drury Lane, where upstairs performances were often disturbed by the noise of skittles games below. In the beginning, the conductor would also have been the waiter, who received commission for every pot of beer or glass of spirit sold. Drinkers paid around a penny admission to hear a variety of comic and sentimental songs, which were first taken from popular operas but later composed to meet demand.
In the mid 19th century, gin consumption once again rose. Gin palaces such as the Mogul on Drury Lane were blamed for adding to the misery of an impoverished area. Although the licensing laws were eventually reformed in 1864 and 24 hour drinking ceased, this was only achieved after debate which was partly centred around the utility of such all night establishments as the Finish, situated on the south side of the market sheds, which “finished” hardened revellers (especially actors, lawyers and MPs) at the same time as it furnished market gardeners with a beer to start the day.
Although Covent Garden’s establishments offered ample opportunity for heavy drinking, much of it was done in conjunction with a good meal and, not only could some of the area’s taverns have definitely been called ‘gastropubs’, but places such as the Crown & Anchor (on the corner of Strand and Arundel Street) hosted up to 2,000 people for important banquets.
In fact, the quality of the fare available often prompted the founding of dining clubs, at which eminent men would meet to discuss affairs over their favourite food and drink. One of the most famous was the Sublime Society of Beefsteaks, established in 1735 at the Theatre Royal by its manager, John Rich. Notable members included Garrick, Johnson, Hogarth and even the Prince of Wales. The private Garrick Club, founded in 1831 on King Street, was also vastly popular and well respected.
Conversely. the Garrick’s Head on Bow Street boasted the infamous ‘Judge and Jury’ club, which staged a facetious, bawdy mock trial that anyone could attend provided they paid admission. A case – inevitably a salacious one – would be put before ‘judge’ Baron Nicholson and decided by much over-acting, obscenity and alcohol consumption. As women were not allowed in until afterwards (around midnight) the roles of female ‘witnesses’ were played by men in drag.
Women were, however, allowed into the riotous masked balls in Covent Garden and were frequently blamed for ruining young men by drinking “champagne as if it were ginger-beer”.
By 1900 other types of drinking establishment arose which siphoned off more respectable customers from other venues. Wine bars, such as the now defunct Short’s on the Strand and nearby Gordon’s became popular, as did hotel bars. The most famous of these was the Savoy, whose American bar opened in 1898 and brought cocktails to Covent Garden.
The public house underwent great changes in 1914 when the Defence of the Realm Act restricted opening hours to 12pm-2.30pm and 6.30pm-9.30pm. Alcohol was also banned from music hall auditoria, contributing to their decline in popularity. Restaurants, meanwhile, were unaffected, leading to trouble when several inebriated soldiers (historically, a common feature in the area) attempted to parachute down from the balcony of Strand restaurant Romano’s with the aid of umbrellas.
After the war, drinking became a charitable affair as in 1924 the Ancient Order of Frothblowers was founded with the aim of fundraising through drinking games. One of their earliest ‘vats’ (designated drinking spots) was Simpsons-on-the-Strand, under whose roof members would have sung, drunk and received fines for misdemeanours such as not wearing AOFB cufflinks.
WWII again brought restrictions to the area’s drinking venues and it wasn’t until the 1960s that licensing was liberalised and different types of establishments began to blossom.
Nowadays, there are endless possibilities for drinking in Covent Garden, from chic wine bars to quirky pop-ups (not to mention more non-alcoholic options than ever before), yet there will always also be a place for the traditional pub because, as Johnson put it “so much happiness is produced by a good tavern”.
Tags: Bars, Beer, Covent Garden, Drinking culture, Gin, Lamb and Flag, Pubs, the Coal Hole