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Great Pubs of London
Brimming with gorgeous photos and witty text, this elegant book celebrates London’s most renowned and historic pubs. For centuries the pub has been an essential part of London’s cultural and social fabric. This beautifully illustrated book takes readers through the doors of 25 historically and architecturally significant London pubs. Through photographs specially commissioned for this project, readers can explore these institutions—from snob screens to 400-hundred-year-old flagstone floors. Engaging texts highlight what makes each pub so special; their place in London’s history, the personalities who have frequented them, the events that occurred inside, and the ways pubs have contributed phrases such as "on the wagon" and "one for the road" to the modern lexicon. This book reveals why The Lamb and Flag in Covent Garden earned the nickname the "Bucket of Blood", and features a pub that Charles Dickens described as a "great rambling queer old place". Furthermore, the book muses over the chances that Casanova paid a visit to The Dog and Duck in Soho, and uncovers the location of Charles De Gaulle’s favorite wartime watering hole. These and other amusing anecdotal histories make this fascinating and luxuriously illustrated book a must-have for anyone with a love for the good old London pub.
- GenresTravelNonfictionLondon
208 pages, Hardcover
Published October 25, 2016
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January 18, 2024An entertaining selection of one man’s favourite London pubs, beautifully photographed but with some historical inaccuracies.
The definition of what makes a London pub ‘great’ is going to differ hugely depending on who you ask and what the criteria are. Dailey addresses this in the introduction, suggesting that it is the atmosphere and ‘feel’ of a place that makes it great, but several of the pubs he goes on to select, whilst historically significant and certainly very attractive, are these days devoid of any real atmosphere at all - faceless, chain-managed and touristy - real whoppers.
To Dailey, or in this book at least, it would appear a ‘great’ London pub is one that is aesthetically beautiful and has a lot of history, including notable past patrons. For a book with such good photography this is fine, but those interested in broader criteria should certainly read around: Dailey says little of the quality or selection of drink in any of the pubs for instance.
One thing that detracts from the book is the occasional factual accuracy. Sometimes this just poor research, but it has nevertheless got through unnoticed past two editors and a proofreader on the way. Writing about the Mayflower for example, Dailey goes into detail about the Brunels’ 1825-43 construction of the Rotherhithe Tunnel, and how it was the first tunnel anywhere in the world to go underneath a navigable river. But the Brunels in fact built the Thames Tunnel; the Rotherhithe Tunnel is a nearby road traffic tunnel opened in 1908.
Other times, it’s debatable claims - such as ‘the last great fire in London [before 1666] was recorded as having taken place in AD 989’, which ignores and handful of significant fires - including more than one occasion of London Bridge burning for instance. Or minor things like using the term ‘medieval’ when describing something mid-16th century, or the 1860s as ‘late Victorian’.
Does this make the book less entertaining? Of course not, but once one has come across an error like the confusion of the Thames/Rotherhithe tunnels, the doubt that creeps into the reader’s mind is a nagging annoyance. Equally, none of this detracts from the quality of the pictures however, which are probably best thing about this book.
The definition of what makes a London pub ‘great’ is going to differ hugely depending on who you ask and what the criteria are. Dailey addresses this in the introduction, suggesting that it is the atmosphere and ‘feel’ of a place that makes it great, but several of the pubs he goes on to select, whilst historically significant and certainly very attractive, are these days devoid of any real atmosphere at all - faceless, chain-managed and touristy - real whoppers.
To Dailey, or in this book at least, it would appear a ‘great’ London pub is one that is aesthetically beautiful and has a lot of history, including notable past patrons. For a book with such good photography this is fine, but those interested in broader criteria should certainly read around: Dailey says little of the quality or selection of drink in any of the pubs for instance.
One thing that detracts from the book is the occasional factual accuracy. Sometimes this just poor research, but it has nevertheless got through unnoticed past two editors and a proofreader on the way. Writing about the Mayflower for example, Dailey goes into detail about the Brunels’ 1825-43 construction of the Rotherhithe Tunnel, and how it was the first tunnel anywhere in the world to go underneath a navigable river. But the Brunels in fact built the Thames Tunnel; the Rotherhithe Tunnel is a nearby road traffic tunnel opened in 1908.
Other times, it’s debatable claims - such as ‘the last great fire in London [before 1666] was recorded as having taken place in AD 989’, which ignores and handful of significant fires - including more than one occasion of London Bridge burning for instance. Or minor things like using the term ‘medieval’ when describing something mid-16th century, or the 1860s as ‘late Victorian’.
Does this make the book less entertaining? Of course not, but once one has come across an error like the confusion of the Thames/Rotherhithe tunnels, the doubt that creeps into the reader’s mind is a nagging annoyance. Equally, none of this detracts from the quality of the pictures however, which are probably best thing about this book.
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September 15, 2018got to page 120 before having to return.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews