What do you think?
Rate this book
The Fitzroy: The Autobiography of a London Tavern
114 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1995
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 28, 2026
I was researching a walk in Fitzrovia and I found out that this area of London was named after the Fitzroy Tavern. Keen to learn more, I asked ChatGPT which pointed me in the direction of this book, which was found on the scanned on the Internet Archive website. What a time to be alive! Robots, sending me in the direction of free entertainment.
This is a short 110 page book, written as a love letter to her parents, who ran the pub. Sally was born there and helped run it herself.
The glory ages of Bohemia were between the 1920s - 1940s. Home to boozehounds, politicians and artists - and any combination thereof. Augustus John, Dylan Thomas, Nina Hamnett and so on. In one glorious section, a pub crawl, dipping into Soho for the last 30 minutes of potential drinking, is described. All the pubs are still there, even if a few have changed names. Guess what I will be doing in September?
The war years and blitz spirit recounted lovingly.... the punters drinking and singing whilst the bombs fell - which included some near misses.
Also the pub as a centre of community and the work this pub did for local charities. They collected money fired into the ceiling through hand crafted darts. Counting the money at the end of the year made it to the Radio - and sharabangs full of disadvantaged London youth were sent off for day trips out.
Controversies include a police raid where drunkenness and homosexual activies of "buttock fingering" (mind boggles) were recorded. This made it to court - an a retrial to quash a guilty verdict of running a house of ill repute.
It's now a Samual Smiths.
The book end in the late 1980s, with the death of her parents and an attempt to document how Fitzrovia has changed now. Instead of the boozehounds, we have tired industry execs trying to steal a lunch.
Wonder what she would make of London now.
Easy and fascinating read, albeit with a bit of repetition
This is a short 110 page book, written as a love letter to her parents, who ran the pub. Sally was born there and helped run it herself.
The glory ages of Bohemia were between the 1920s - 1940s. Home to boozehounds, politicians and artists - and any combination thereof. Augustus John, Dylan Thomas, Nina Hamnett and so on. In one glorious section, a pub crawl, dipping into Soho for the last 30 minutes of potential drinking, is described. All the pubs are still there, even if a few have changed names. Guess what I will be doing in September?
The war years and blitz spirit recounted lovingly.... the punters drinking and singing whilst the bombs fell - which included some near misses.
Also the pub as a centre of community and the work this pub did for local charities. They collected money fired into the ceiling through hand crafted darts. Counting the money at the end of the year made it to the Radio - and sharabangs full of disadvantaged London youth were sent off for day trips out.
Controversies include a police raid where drunkenness and homosexual activies of "buttock fingering" (mind boggles) were recorded. This made it to court - an a retrial to quash a guilty verdict of running a house of ill repute.
It's now a Samual Smiths.
The book end in the late 1980s, with the death of her parents and an attempt to document how Fitzrovia has changed now. Instead of the boozehounds, we have tired industry execs trying to steal a lunch.
Wonder what she would make of London now.
Easy and fascinating read, albeit with a bit of repetition
Displaying 1 of 1 review