I decided to go a tad niche this week for our Book Bite, given that many of my readers seem to love London as much as I do. There are a lot of books that focus on different buildings in London: Westminster, the Tower of London, Selfridges, all very large and imposing places. However, there are some seemingly smaller places that deserve the same amount of attention- the George Inn is one of them. One of the most historic spaces in Southwark, the George stars in Shakespeare’s Pub by Pete Brown!
Shakespeare’s Pub: A Barstool History of London Seen Through the Windows of its Oldest Pub- The George Inn, Pete Brown
Welcome to the George Inn near London Bridge; a cosy, wood-paneled, galleried coaching house a few minutes’ walk from the Thames. Grab yourself a pint, listen to the chatter of the locals and lean back, resting your head against the wall. And then consider this: who else has rested their head against that wall, over the last six hundred years?
Chaucer and his fellow pilgrims almost certainly drank in the George on their way out of London to Canterbury. It’s fair to say that Shakespeare popped in from the nearby Globe for a pint, and we know that Dickens certainly did. Mail carriers changed their horses here, before heading to all four corners of Britain—while sailors drank here before visiting all four corners of the world.
The pub, as Pete Brown points out, is the ‘primordial cell of British life’ and in the George he has found the perfect example. All life is here, from murderers, highwaymen, and ladies of the night to gossiping peddlers and hard-working clerks. So sit back with Shakespeare’s Pub and watch as buildings rise and fall over the centuries, and ‘the beer drinker’s Bill Bryson’ (UK’s Times Literary Supplement) takes us on an entertaining tour through six centuries of history, through the stories of everyone that ever drank in one pub.
Why You Should Read This…
I fully admit my bias- I’ve visited the George Inn more than once, and it is one of the coolest pubs I’ve ever been to. The starting point for Chaucer’s pilgrims, a watering hole for Shakespeare and his friends, it feels like you are in centuries of good company.
One of the only surviving coaching inns in England, the George has quite the story to tell. And Brown does a fantastic job of bringing its history to life. It is an entertaining book that doesn’t skip any of the juicy bits. Southwark has a rich and sometimes dark history, and he doesn’t shy away. (I also believe that Southwark is one of the most fascinating parts of London, and doesn’t get the attention that it deserves…)
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Want to see the George Inn? Check out my post here: https://anhistorianabouttown.com/the-george-inn-southwark-snapshot/!
Is Shakepeare’s Pub on your to-read list?
Cheers,
The Historian
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