Coach & Horses

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Probably... the best gastropub in London

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Random Coach History Facts

Clerkenwell has a colourful history. It was home to Lenin and Benjamin Franklin, and George Gissing and Charles Dickens used it as the setting for their novels - Fagin’s lair was just around the corner on Turnmill street

It was and is London’s ‘Little Italy’: Italian immigrants started the local tool-making industry that matured into watch and clock-making and jewellery (now dominating Hatton Garden). The Coach and Horses football team was almost entirely Italian, and very successful (no surprises there). There is still an Italian festival and procession held each year in July.

The River Fleet is an ancient river that starts in Hampstead, flows down through Camden and Kings Cross, passes outside our front door and joins the Thames at Blackfriars. This area, right on the river bank, was known as Hockley-in-the-Hole as it flooded so often. Today the river runs underground - you can hear it through a drain outside.

On this very spot was the Bear Garden of Hockley-in-the-Hole, a purpose-built arena for watching bear-baiting. Our building was right next door; it’s so old that the room over the bar was originally on the second storey, and the beer-cellars were habitable apartments. There was even a secret passage connecting with the river bank.

A small case with the name "R. Turpin" on the lid was found here, as well as a very old leather satchel with the initials RT in gold..

Unsurprisingly, we have a few ghosts. Most frequently spotted are the old man in the beer-cellar, and the black cat on the second floor, now Giles and Col’s kitchen.