Historic London Pubcast

Ep 02 Buckets of Blood - Tales of Fights & Ale at The Lamb & Flag - Rose Street

• Eric Blair • Season 1 • Episode 2

Share episode

Send us a text

The Lamb and Flag pub on Rose Street has secrets going back to King Charles II's restoration court.  Come with us as we explore this gem tucked away in the busy Covent Garden area.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Google map with pubs covered in previous episodes pinned, courtesy of Andy Meddick:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/4/edit?mid=12c-WKa3XiT1qTLydK8psZocUR7Y_Wes&usp=sharing

Or TinyURL: https://tinyurl.com/bduca5dv

The following resources are quoted frequently in these episodes:

Additionally, the  following resource(s) were quoted in this episode:

Intro music:

Vivaldi - Spring Allegro byJohn Harrison with the Wichita State University Chamber

Photo: Duncan Cumming



Website: https://historiclondonpubcast.com/

E-mail: hosteric@historiclondonpubcast.com

Welcome to this episode of The Historic London Pubcast. I'm Eric Blair, and I'd like to take you on a journey through the rich history of London's iconic pubs. My goal is to share with you my passion for the great old pubs of London. I want to give you some facts to help you appreciate the history of these hallowed establishments mixed in with some fun stories that make it all go down as smooth as a well poured pint. 

Today, let's visit The Lamb and Flag on Rose Street - just a five minute walk from Covent Garden. Ready? 

The streets around Covent Garden are usually busy with lots of cars and pedestrians. But make your way on Garrett Street until you come to Rose Street. Look down at and you could be forgiven in thinking that it dead ends straight at The Lamb and Flag. An aside. Once you reach the pub, you'll find that Rose Street actually curves to the west of the pub. The Lamb and Flag has a left and right entrance. Proceed through either and you are transported back in time. The pub's interior is a delightful blend of old and new.

Dark old beams criss cross the low ceiling and the walls are adorned with theatrical posters - their faded colors hinting at past productions. The worn wooden floorboards creak softly beneath your feet. The layout of the pub is rectangular, with seating at the entrance and at the back of the pub, with a long polished mahogany bar stretching down one wall in the middle.

The back section has a fireplace that is wonderful to ruminate on as you sip your beer on a crisp London day. Across from the bar are stairs leading up to the second floor that has an additional bar and seating for dining. The pub's website has several 360 degree photos that are the closest thing to actually being in the pub.

Type Lamb and Flag Covent Garden all one word into your search engine, and the pub siteshould be the first thing that comes up. Once there, click the gallery option and you will be able to experience the 360 degree photos. There has been a building on this site since 1638. The website admits that the first mention of a pub at this location was not until 1772, with the name being The Cooper's Arms.

The exterior brickwork of today dates back to 1958, but the interior seems much older given the modern hustle and bustle of the area. The pub has a warm feel of a refuge, especially if you can get in there just after the opening before it gets crowded. 

The pub would be on almost anyone's Top Ten List, but it makes it into my Top Five because of its link to a historic event - the vicious assault of poet and critic John Dryden on the night of December 19th, 1679. This was carried out by several thugs in the alleyway next to the pub. Good news, the villains are long gone, and this alleyway is still actively used today as a convenient cut through for pedestrians. As for the attack, Dryden really got the worst of it and initially there was a question whether he would even survive, but he did recover.

Understanding this crime and the characters involved gives us a real feel for the times of this great pub's youth. So that's where our fun facts start today. 

To set the stage, we really must go back to 1649. That year, the British monarch, Charles, was tried and executed in a revolt led by Oliver Cromwell, who took over as Lord protector, basically functioning as a king.

Just like now, the political landscape was always changing. After about ten years, Cromwell died and events resulted in the restoration of the monarchy in the person of Charles the Second, the previous Charles's son. At the time of Charles's execution, John Dryden, was a young fellow from the north of England, just starting his studies at Trinity College, Cambridge. He did quite well, finishing at the top of his class.

From there he made his way to London and worked at a government position during the time of Cromwell. But he was a strong supporter of the re-establishment of the monarchy. He was happy when Charles the Second took the throne, but Dryden didn't want to remain a civil servant forever. So he started his literary career. He began to have success as a playwright, but as his fame grew, he wanted to be known more for his work as a poet and a satirist.

Okay, so just what is a satirist? Googling. I got this rather dry but informative definition,

“One who writes satire, which is an artistic form, chiefly literary and dramatic, in which human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up for censure by means of ridicule.” 

Okay, back to our story. By 1667, Dryden mainly spent his time writing poetry and satire.

Although originally a supporter of the restoration of the monarchy, he just couldn't help turning his caustic pen toward the King and his circle of nobles at court. The result was a piece called An Essay upon Satire. Dryden's piece pulled no punches. He starts out by defending his weapon of choice – satire, 

“Satire has always shown among the rest and is the boldest way, if not the best, to tell men freely of their foulest faults, to laugh at their vain deeds and vayner thoughts.”

He then begins to take on the folks at court. He refers to the King as Sauntering Charles. Although he refuses to name the King's mistress, he lashes out at her as well. Here are a couple of lines,

“Like her, who missed her name in a lampoon and grieved to find herself decayed so soon, and nor shall the royal mistress be named, too ugly or too easily to be blamed.”

Despite not being named, the readers of the time all knew who Dryden was talking about, and she would become a factor in the whole event. Charles's mistress was Nell Gwynne, an English stage actress and celebrity figure of the restoration period. Nell broke the glass ceiling of her day. She was one of the first female actresses on stage.

As a side note, in earlier times, like Shakespeare's, women's parts were actually played by men. Nell was evidently good at her craft. She was praised by the famous Diarist Samuel Pepys for her comic performances, but acting was not her real claim to fame. Nell became best known for being the long time mistress of the King. Nell had come up the hard way and is thought to not have been particularly genteel in her early days. She reportedly had many affairs and could engage in saucy talk with the best of them. But the King welcomed Nell to his abode for a number of years, so she evidently knew how to keep him happy. They had two sons together. Now let's consider who else was done in by Dryden's hit piece. Several nobles were named and insulted.

One in particular was John Wilmot, the Second Earl of Rochester, commonly known just as Rochester. Wikipedia gives us some facts about him, 

“He was an English poet and courtier of Charles's restoration court. He reacted against the spiritual authoritarianism of the previous Puritan era. Rochester embodied this new, more libertine era, and he became well known as much for his rakish lifestyle as for his poetry.”

King Charles had suggested a marriage between Rochester and the wealthy heiress Elizabeth Millay, but her relatives opposed the marriage to the impoverished Rochester. Apparently, not constrained by the rule of law, he conspired with his mother to abduct the young Countess. The plot was foiled, and the 18 year old Rochester spent three weeks in the Tower of London Jail.

He was released only when he wrote a penitent apology to the King. Rochester's life was divided between domesticity in the country and a riotous existence at court, where he was renowned for drunkenness, vivacious conversation, and extravagant frolics as part of a group known as The Merry Gang. He died as a result of a sexually transmitted infection at the age of 33.

So we see that Rochester was kind of a wild dude. Dryden seemed to have no respect for his abilities, and lets him have it. The essay was written in rhyming lines, and reading all the verse might be a bit too long. So let me give you some of the hardest hitting comments, 

“Rochester I despise for want of wit. False. Are his words. Affected is his wit. So often does he aim so seldom hit. To every face he cringes while he speaks. But when the back is turned the head he breaks. Mean in each action. Lewd in every limb. Manners themselves are mischievous in him.“

This must have inflamed old Rochester, but he had other reasons to hate Dryden.

Wikipedia tells us,

“As a teenager, actress Nell Gwynne almost certainly took Rochester as her lover. Later, as the mistress of Charles, Gwynne remained a lifelong friend and political associate of Rochester. Her relationship with the King gave Rochester influence and status within the court.” 

Okay. Three strikes. One. Insult the king. Strike two. Insulting Mistress Nell and strike three. Insult Rochester himself, all in the same piece.

Wow. Clearly Rochester felt action was required. Wiki gives us a few details of the attack, 

“Rochester responded by hiring thugs who attacked Dryden whilst walking back from Will's Coffeehouse, a popular London coffeehouse where the wits gathered to gossip, drink, and conduct their business. Enroute to his house on Jarrow Street around 8 p.m. on the 19th of December 1679, Dryden was attacked in Rose alley by the pub. He survived the attack and placed an ad in the London Gazette offering 50 pounds for the identity of the thugs. He further offered a royal pardon if one of the brutes would confess.”

No one claims a reward, although he got no justice for his drubbing. I think you can say John Dryden had the last laugh. 

The attack occurred in December of 1679. Rochester died about six months later, in July 1680. And we all know how. Remember, his death was said to have resulted from a quote, “Sexually transmitted infection”. Now, that doesn't sound like fun. King Charles the Second died five years later, in February 1685, and Mistress Nell died less than two years later than that in November of 1687.

Dryden outlived them all, making it to May 1700 and aged 68. He's buried at Westminster Abbey, and was lionized by Samuel Johnson about 100 years later as the ‘Father of English Criticism’. Not a bad credential, but I must say Nell got the consolation prize. She has a pub named after her that still exists today - The Nell Gwynne Tavern.

Its website gives us the following details, 

“Built on the site of the old bull in the tavern was named after the infamous mistress of Charles the Second. Nell was born and raised locally here at Saint Martin in the fields, and sold fruit in the nearby Covent Garden market before gaining fame as an actress on the Drury Lane stage.” 

The Nell Gwynne Tavern has its own true crime tales.

The website frankly admits that in earlier years the pub was nothing if not a den of iniquity. In 1897, William Terrace, a well known actor of the day, was murdered yards from the pub by a stagehand from the neighboring Adelphi Theater. In the 1960s, the notorious Richardson Gang were reputed to have frequented the Nell. These guys were known as the most sadistic gangsters around. They liked to use pliers, bolt cutters, and six inch nails when evening up the score with folks who done them wrong. But fear not. They're all long gone now. Google puts the Nell Gwynne Tavern as a four minute walk from The Lamb and Flag, so it's very easy to raise a pint to good old John Dryden and then just a few minutes later, be toasting Mistress Nell – each in their locals. 

Most sources clearly blame Rochester for Dryden's beat down, but Ted Bruning his Historic Pubs of London book is not so quick to judge. Bruning speculates that Dryden's attack could have been just a random mugging. Or perhaps they were looking for fellow Satirist Samuel Butler, who lived on Red Rose Street at the time. 

Bruning also tells us that the neighborhood around the pub went downhill in subsequent years. In Dryden's time, this was a fairly honest working class area, fit for mechanics and people of mean quality. But by the late 18th century it stood on the edge of the most festering, packed, squalid slum in central London, a district called the Holy Land. Even after the Metropolitan Police were founded in 1829. They can only make arrest in the Holy Land in large, heavily armed squads with reinforcements close at hand.

That sounds like the Swat team of its day. 

It was during this period that The Cooper's Arms, as the Lamb and Flag was then known, got a nickname. The pub's upstairs room once hosted bare knuckle prize fights, leading the pub to be nicknamed The Bucket of Blood. 

But the times they were a changing. Ted Bruning tells us that in the late 1850s, the area was largely redeveloped and became, if not genteel, at least honest and The Cooper's Arms was renamed The Lamb and Flag.

The name Lamb and Flag has been taken by several pubs in the UK. The lamb is a symbol of Christianity, the lamb being the Lamb of God and the flag with the White Cross of Saint George is a symbol of the country. So taken together, the lamb and flag is a symbol of piousness and patriotism. Perhaps the owners in renaming the pub, wanted to clearly break with its unsavory bucket of blood past. 

The Lamb and Flag is a Fuller's pub. Let me say a bit about that company. In 1845, Fuller, Smith and Turner was founded by three men and I'll give you one guess as to what their last names were John Bird Fuller, Henry Smith, and John Turner. The company had several brewing locations in the UK, but the main one was their Griffin Brewery in Chiswick. That facility well preceded even the formation of the company.

Beer had been brewed there since the 17th century. In 2019, Fuller, Smith and Turner sold their brewing division, including the Griffin Brewery, to the international brewing company Asahifor a cool 250 million pounds. Asahi stated that they would continue to brew beer at the Griffin Brewery. Thank goodness! Now, Fuller, Smith and Turner still own and operate over 380 pubs, inns and hotels across the South of England.

Fuller's run several of my favorite pubs once featured in current or upcoming pubcasts: 

·       Ye Olde Mitre (Episode 06).

·       The Victoria at Paddington.

·       The Dove at Hammersmith.

·       The Flask at Highgate (Episode 27 and Episode 29).

·       The Viaduct Tavern (Episode 05). 

·       The Star Tavern in Belgravia (Episode 03). 

Okay, I have just a few other quick facts about The Lamb and Flag. The upstairs is appropriately now named The Dryden Room and there's no more bare knuckle fighting up there.

There is one of the blue historic plaques on the wall outside the pub. These circular blue plaquesare all over London at historic points of interest. This one tells of Dryden's attack, and it definitely gives the Earl of Rochester credit for the dirty deed. There is a Dryden Theater in the US and it's located in all places, wait for it, Rochester, New York. 

Finally a caution. The Lamb and Flag we discussed today is not the only Lamb and Flag in the area. If you're discussing it or getting directions, be sure to say The Lamb and Flag on Rose Street or The Lamb and Flag at Covent Garden to avoid confusion. So as we close for today, I hope I've convinced you that The Lamb and Flag on Rose Street is clearly worth a visit.

Please come back for further historic London pub adventures. Until then, Cheers!