Lamb exterior. Image from https://www.thelamblondon.com/ Operating as a pub on the same site under the same name since the 1720s, the Lamb in Bloomsbury's Lamb's Conduit Street (both named after the local philanthropist William Lambe) certainly counts as Old London. Although it has been thoroughly restored, that was done in Victorian times, and it remains… Continue reading The Lamb, Bloomsbury [Old London]
Category: London
Trafalgar Tavern, Greenwich [Old London]
You can't get much more Old London than the Trafalgar Tavern on the riverside at Greenwich, just past the Old Royal Naval College, with historic buildings to either side and behind, and modernity of Canary Wharf across the Thames at the front. It even has its own Wikipedia page. The Trafalgar Tavern today (image from… Continue reading Trafalgar Tavern, Greenwich [Old London]
London and the 17th century
I have never really liked the seventeenth century; maybe after having to study it at school, seemingly interminably. Rather too much plague, fire, civil war, religious persecution, and Dutchmen doing bad things on the Medway. Yes, of course, Christopher Wren and Isaac Newton, but even so. Sometimes, however, reading a single book can change one's… Continue reading London and the 17th century
Libraries of Science at the Royal Society
An interesting meeting with a full-house audience in the opulent surroundings of the Royal Society in Carlton House Terrace last week (14th March 2025). 'Libraries of Science' is an apt enough title, although the topics covered were mostly more specific. Talks focused mainly on aspects of the libraries of British learned and societies, from Antiquaries… Continue reading Libraries of Science at the Royal Society
Ravi Shankar Bhel Poori House [Old London]
Serving vegetarian Indian food on the same spot, and alleged with the same green coloured frontage, since 1982, Ravi Shankar Bhel Poori House certainly qualifies as Old London. One of a cluster of long-established restaurants on Drummond Street serving South Ian food for decades, it has survived economic gloom, pandemic, and the disruption of the… Continue reading Ravi Shankar Bhel Poori House [Old London]
The Clermont at Charing Cross [Old London]
The Clermont Hotel on the Strand, which I am old enough to still think of as the Charing Cross Hotel, must certainly count as Old London, since it has its own page on Historic England's National List of protected buildings. Built in the 1860s - "an ebullient design in the French Renaissance style", according to… Continue reading The Clermont at Charing Cross [Old London]
Haxells Strand Palace [Old London]
At first sight, the modern, if Art Deco influenced, ambience of Haxells restaurant, within the Strand Palace Hotel, does not suggest Old London. But there is an interesting backstory. The hotel itself dates back to 1909, but took its present form in the 1920s, with a redesign in Art Deco style. The expanded hotel incorporated… Continue reading Haxells Strand Palace [Old London]
Paul Rothe [Old London]
With a century and a quarter's history, Paul Rothe's Marylebone delicatessen and cafe certainly counts as a part of Old London, with an interesting back story. Opened on 2nd August 1900 as a 'German delicatessen' by the eponymous Paul Rothe, it has been operated on the same Marylebone Lane premises by four generations of the… Continue reading Paul Rothe [Old London]
Spaghetti House [Old London]
Continuing our occasional look at eating places which might qualify as Old London, we come, as everyone wanting a quick meal in Central London does at some point, to Spaghetti House. This has something of a mixed reputation for food quality, but we cannot doubt its longevity. Founded in 1955 in Goodge Street, it is… Continue reading Spaghetti House [Old London]
A tree grows in Southwark
At the heart of Betty Smith's 1943 novel A tree grows in Brooklyn is the image of a Tree of Heaven growing in harsh urban surroundings. The tree's survival in the heart of a grom part of the city is a metaphor for people's ability to flourish in the most difficult environments. [EcoBrookyn say the… Continue reading A tree grows in Southwark
The Occasional Informationist 