It seems as though most of the previous literary giants drank in Fitzrovia and we were scheduled to meet our guide at The Wheatsheaf, which was Charles Dickens’s prime watering hole as well as the pub where Dylan Thomas met his wife Caitlin.
After an introductory beer, just to toast Charles of course, the next stop was the Duke of York, where Anthony Burgess was once quaffing an ale when a local gang burst in and smashed the place up.
Burgess’s wife, Lynne, approached the gang leader and remarked this was ‘such a waste’. Thinking she was referring to his wasted life, the thug got seriously belligerent. “No,” Lynne replied. “Such a waste of good beer.”He then challenged her to a drinking competition. She promptly necked three pints in as many minutes and he was so impressed he pledged lifelong protection from his gang.
Burgess, apparently, used this as an inspiration for his dystopian novel, A Clockwork Orange.
We then passed the Fitzroy Tavern, where Dylan Thomas drank more malt than absolutely necessary.
Outside, our tour guide read Dylan’s poem to his dying father, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night, which even though I have heard often, is still magnificent.
Also a patron of the Fitzroy was Virginia Woolf, who probably was what we today would call Bipolar. Our guide read her beautifully-worded suicide note to her devoted husband, and – wow… even after a few brewskis, it was poignant stuff.
Then it was off to the Newman Arms, the inspiration for the proletariat pub in George Orwell’s 1984.
There’s a plaque in honour of a former patron which kind of sums it up: “Joe Jenkins, poet, bon viveur and Old Git, regularly swore at everybody on these premises.”
Finally, we ended up at the Marquis of Granby, a bar TS Eliot propped up when not writing The Wasteland.Dylan Thomas also regularly fell down there, but I think that goes for most of the taverns in the area.
We didn’t stop at all the pubs. If we had, we would have been reciting sonnets in Swahili, but it was a fascinating way to see a unique slice of London.
Our guide left us with some sobering news. Most of Fitzrovia has now been bought by property developers for upmarket accommodation.
Which means many of pubs could go.
If they do, I fervently hope they heed the words of a former patron – and do not go gentle into that good night.
Graham Spence describes himself as an old South African ‘hack’, having worked on several newspapers and magazines in South Africa, Scope being one of the more infamous publications. He is now an internationally acclaimed author with two of his books penned in partnership with his late brother-in-law, Lawrence Anthony (the famous ‘Elephant Whisperer’). Movie deals have already been signed for two books and a third is in the pipeline. They are available at most bookstores.
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