A historical site about early London coffee houses and taverns and will also link to my current pub history site and also the London street directory
WHITE HART TAVERN, Bishopsgate without.
About forty years since there stood at a short distance north of St.
Botolph's Church, a large old hostelrie, according to the date it bore
(1480,) towards the close of the reign of Edward IV. Stow, in 1598,
describes it as " a fair inn for receipt of travellers, next unto the Parish
Church of St. Botolph without Bishopsgate."
It preserved much of its original appearance, the main front consisting of
three bays of two storeys, which, with the interspaces, had throughout
casements ; and above which was an overhanging storey or attic, and the roof
rising in three points. Still, this was not the original front, which was
altered in 1787 : upon the old inn yard was built White Hart Court. In 1829,
the Tavern was taken down, and rebuilt, in handsome modern style ; when the
entrance into Old Bedlam, and formerly called Bedlam Gate, was widened, and
the street re-named Liverpool-street. A lithograph of the old Tavern was
published in 1829.
Somewhat lower down, is the residence of Sir Paul Pindar, now wine-vaults,
with the sign of Paul Pindar's Head, corner of Half-moon-alley, No. 160,
Bishopsgate street Without. Sir Paul was a wealthy merchant, contemporary
with Sir Thomas Gresham. The house was built towards the end of the 16th
century, with a wood framed front and caryatid brackets ; and the principal
windows bayed, their lower fronts enriched with panels of carved work. In
the first-floor front room is a fine original ceiling in stucco, in which
are the arms of Sir Paul Pindar. In the rear of these premises, within a
garden, was formerly a lodge, of corresponding date, decorated with four
medallions, containing figures in Italian taste. In Half- moon -alley, was
the Half-moon Brewhouse, of which there is a token in the Beaufoy
Collection.
Note : There are a number of different White Hart which later exist in Bishopsgate. This early tavern is clearly rebuilt in 1829. It is probably that at 199 Bishopsgate street, as mentioned on the pub history site.
References :
Lots of references are made to two sources on the
internet archive
:
Edward Callows, Old London Taverns &
John Timbs, Club life of London Volume 2