THE LADY OTTOLINE

THE LADY OTTOLINE - A LITERARY LONDON PUB

Yesterday, I went to the book launch of Widdershins?by L.A. Robbins at The Society of Authors, 24 Bedford Row, WCI. En route, it was raining out, I popped into The Lady Ottoline which was busy for 6pm on a Tuesday evening.

This refurbished 19th century?pub, part of Market Taverns,?is named after Lady Ottoline Morrell, the aristocrat, the literary hostess and member of the Bloomsbury set who wrote two memoirs [Ottoline: The early memoirs of Lady Ottoline Morrell and Ottoline at Garsington: Memoirs 1915-18] and was supposedly the inspiration for a handful of literary characters. Lady Ottoline Morrell may have been the model for D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley. Her life is described in: (1) Sandra Jobson Darroch’s book Ottoline: Life of Lady Ottoline Morrell (1976) and Garsington Revisited: The Legend of Lady Ottoline Morrell Brought Up-to-Date (2017). (2) Miranda Seymour ‘s Ottoline Morrell: Life on the Grand Scale (2024).

There are portraits of Lady Ottoline in the pub. The interior has a mixture of styles including:?bare board floor,?wooden tables and chairs, some modern high tables and stools, various art works and?antiques plus a dining room upstairs.

After ordering a half of Amstel, and offering a ￡5 note, the barman told me: ‘We don’t do cash!’ I paid ￡3.25 by card.

I sat on a fitted leather-covered bench, near the front, sharing a table. At the other end of my table was a smartly-dressed couple, both with dark brown hair, drinking a bottle of white wine (from an ice bucket). I wondered are these work colleagues who would like to become lovers?

On the table opposite, were another well-dressed couple but both had white hair this time. He was highlighting sentences from documents in a lever arch file – that didn’t indicate a prelude to a more intimate relationship outside work. But what do I know! After starting with a glass of rose each they had added a 50cl carafe before I left. And, the man put his lever arch file away.

Maybe The Lady Ottoline is a good place for both new and old relationships?

The Lady Ottoline, 11A Northington Street, Bloomsbury, WC1N 2JF

?

?

If you liked this article,?there are other London literary pubs listed here.