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Your Master, Wardens and Livery Committee invite you to join them, with fellow Liverymen, family and friends, for a virtual pub crawl of the City of London’s historic pubs – all from the comfort of your home. Join us with your favourite tipple and preferred nibbles for an online evening where you can imbibe as much as you wish as no actual driving will be required.
Our host will be Simon Whitehouse of London Walks and we shall make several virtual stops at some of London’s most historic pubs and bars. There will be a quiz with a Coachmaker and pub focus –the highest score buys a round for all as soon as we all next meet in person.
This bespoke, free event is kindly provided and sponsored by Liveryman Dave Connor, MD of RVL Group.
Factoids to whet your appetite: not many people know that our Master is a descendant of a publican. Her great-great grandfather, Charles Adams and his wife, great-great grandmother Jessie Selina Dogget, ran the White Horse at Kings Head Yard, St Giles in Little Wild Street, WC2 (a postal district in London, not numerical shorthand for the number of facilities on the premises).
Our tour will begin at the Sky Garden, London’s highest public garden, promptly at 6pm and then meander past a dizzying array of pubs and places with connections to the Pilgrim Fathers, JMW Turner, Samuel Pepys and Charles Dickens. Also, a brewery founded in 1666 which sent stout to the Russian Court and IPA to the Raj. For those with a gruesome interest in the chilling, we shall see the site of a notable murder, as well as where the founding of the Salvation Army took place. En route, we shall note the location of London’s worst cholera outbreak.
At 6.30pm we’ll stop for a snifter at a virtual Gordon’s Wine Bar where we shall find a hidden hole of Bolly bottles and possibly the spirits of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. Don’t mention the Scottish Play unless you are prepared to face the consequences.
Next, we’re off to seek out the origins of Dracula, Britain’s first gastropub: ‘Pint of O+ Positive anyone?’, and a gin distillery.
And, as salutes to our origins we shall see London’s last galleried coaching inn, the George in Southwark before we pause in Covent Garden – Long Acre to be precise – where one of our Past Masters, John Hatchett, employed hundreds of workers in his coachmaking business. Plenty more details here.
The dress code is smart casual.
To book your place please click below. Attendees are encouraged to make a donation to The Coachmakers’ charitable fund, by credit or debit card. Your receipt will arrive by confirmation email and your Zoom log-in code will be sent to you a couple of days before the event.