Saturday, September 10, 2016

'The Prospect of Whitby'

London The Unfinished City
London's oldest riverside inn.

Saturday September 10, 2016.

The Prospect of Whitby is one of the pubs, in the Unfinished City, that I had wanted to visit for many years. So, as I began a walk from St Katharine Docks, I knew where I would be ending up, which made the walk even more exciting. 

London The Unfinished City
What's in a name?


The exterior is amazing, but I much preferred the view from the foreshore. Inside there is a pewter-topped bar, which compliments the 400 year old stone floor, the only original piece of the building. 

London The Unfinished City
The front of The Prospect of Whitby.


On the foreshore, in front of the window overlooking the River Thames, is a replica gallows and noose, which commemorates one of the pubs frequent clients: 'Hanging' Judge Jeffreys.


Brief History

The pub was built in the 1520s, in the reign of King Henry VIII, but with the name The Pelican. It later changed its name to The Devil's Tavern, before it changed its name, in the 18th century, to The Prospect of Whitby.

In the early 1700s a sailor, returning from the West Indies, sold some flowers to a local market gardener, in return for a quarter of a pint of rum. These flowers had never been seen in England, before. The gardener produced several hundred more of these flowers, which became very popular, and still are today, all over Great Britain. They are called Fuchsia.



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