The George Inn, Southwark, London - Anglophile Friday

 The George Inn, Southwark

and nearby,

The Shard, a.k.a. Shard of Glass

95 story skyscraper,
housing offices, restaurants, and hotels.

Photos from March of 2015

Huge red dot marks the approximate location of The George Inn.
I'm going by its proximity to the intersection of A3200 and A3
It could be off, I suppose, but you get the general idea.

 The George Inn Courtyard

The George Inn is located in Southwark, pronounced SUTH-ick (for my fellow Americans who have a tendency to actually pronounce every letter in a given word.) Evidently, there are far too many unnecessary letters in English place names.

The stairway in our house is narrow and steep too,

but somehow doesn't exude that same romantic charm.

From Wikipedia:

"In 1677, the George was rebuilt after a serious fire that destroyed most of medieval Southwark. There had been many such inns in this part of London. Probably the most famous was The Tabard where, in 1388, Chaucer began The Canterbury Tales. The Tabard was also rebuilt after the same fire, but was demolished in the late 19th century.

"Later, the Great Northern Railway used the George as a depot and pulled down two of its fronts to build warehousing. Now just the south face remains.

"The George was one of the many famous coaching inns in the days of Charles Dickens. Dickens in fact visited the George and referred to it in Little Dorrit. It is thought that the Galleried Inns were the inspiration of the original theatres, that the Players were on a dais in the Courtyard with the standing audience next to them and that those paying a premium would be in the Galleries with a better view."

A better view

This was before the wonderful mix of olives

brought to our table, along with a bowl of olive oil

and slices of bread. Who couldn't live off that!

(Maybe a little cheese, too.)

But, of course we didn't stop with the olives and bread.

 It had been a very long day.

We were all feeling a bit blurry.

The whole scene is beautiful at night,

with The Shard rising up in the background

and the lights making everything glow.

It was a nice way to end an evening.

Of course, one expects places like this in London to be old, but take a look at this:

The Pandy Inn in Dorstone, Herefordshire,

has been a free house continuously

since the 12th century.

No kidding.


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