THE STABLEHAND
THE STABLEHAND - A LITERARY LONDON PUB
This pub, built in 1839 on Thomas Waring's archery range, was formally a called the Archery Tavern. Thomas Waring wrote A Treatise on Archery or The Art of Shooting with a Long Bow (1824). It is now gastro pub and named: 'The Stablehand'.
On Saturday, Howard was the first to arrive for lunch and WhatsApp-ed the message: ‘I am comfy in the backroom where my father ate biscuits 80?years?ago...’
On my arrival, I saw in the backroom red stripped wallpaper, horsey photos on the walls and Howard sitting at a table beside the ladies WC.
Four generations of the Matthews’s family have drunk here: About 80 years ago, Howard’s grandfather drunk inside as Howard’s father (as a child) sat in the backroom with an arrowroot biscuit. Subsequently, Howard’s father took Howard to this pub for lunchtime pints when Howard worked in Shepherd’s Bush. And, in turn, Howard has taken his son to this pub.
On Jon-Jon’s arrival we ordered. I drank 'Stablehand' lager and ate a ham hock and chicken terrine [from the ‘Saturday light lunch’ (12-5pm) menu, a la carte was also available] followed by bread and butter pudding.
The pub has been frequented by literary politicians including: Tony Blair, Geoffrey Howe and Winston Churchill. Blair has written books. Howe wrote a few books. But Churchill, a most prolific writer, wrote a novel (Savrola), two biographies, memoirs (e.g.?The Second World War), histories (e.g.?A History of the English-Speaking Peoples), speeches (e.g.?Arms and the Covenant) and numerous press articles. He also received the?Nobel Prize in Literature?in 1953.
The name ‘The Stablehand’ refers a person who works at one of the two stables in Bathurst Mews. However, in literary terms, ‘The Stablehand’ as a book title seems to point towards the romance, erotica, S&M genre of literature (including horses and stables). Six examples:? (1) AE Lister’s Stable Hand; (2) Jorgi Cole’s The Stable Hand; (3) Violet Edge’s Seduced by the Stable Hand. (4) Aiden Hunter’s The Stable Hand; (5) Celeste B’s Jen & The Stable Hand; (6) Roxanne De La Croix’s The Stable Hand;
Another claim to fame for this pub is that it featured in the Inspector Morse episode The Last Enemy, written by?Peter Buckman but based on Colin Dexter’s novel?The Riddle of the Third Mile.
If you liked this article,?there are other London literary pubs listed here.