THE VICTORIA
THE VICTORIA PUB - A LITERARY LONDON PUB
The Victoria is a Grade II listed Fullers pub, five minutes from Paddington Station. Paddington Bear is a named after the district, after his arrival from Peru.
Howard and I sat at a table beside a fireplace downstairs. Howard had a cider and I had a Frontier lager. The pub is named after Queen Victoria so there are pictures and memorabilia (such as decorated plates) of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their family.
It's literary pedigree:
Charles Dickens may have written some of Our Mutual Friend in the Library Room.?The Library Room was being used for dining when we visited.
The pub has been patronised by Winston Churchill who won a Nobel Prize in Literature?in 1953 and Charlie Chaplin who wrote many of his movies and published one novel ‘Footlights’.
In 1966, David Bowie launched his first EP at a small gig in the upstairs bar. Bowie attempted to write an autobiography and a novel.?The Guardian call him the man who read the world; he had many literary influences.
Wikipedia: The Victoria
If you liked this article,?there are other London literary pubs listed here.
Historian and Author. 2021 recipient of the Victorian Military Society's Howard Browne Medal. Former claim centre manager and auto loss adjuster. No cryptocurrency or sugar daddy requests.
2 年I stayed in the Lancaster Gate area 2 or 3 times on various visits to London. I never had a pint here though. I did at a couple of others in the area, Henry Bewley.
Author
2 年You might ask: 'Why were you in the area on Saturday? Well, the simple answer is: Howard had mislaid a pub! * Howard’s grandfather drunk in a pub in Lancaster Gate. * Howard’s father (as a child) remembered being taken there and being sat outside 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 took his son to the pub. But Howard couldn’t remember the name or exactly where this family pub resided. So, on Saturday, as Howard was up in London for a football match, we went looking for the elusive pub, beforehand. We met outside the most likely location: 4 Bathurst Street. There is now a closed restaurant Angelus here. But, more importantly, yes, it was the venue where four generations of the Howard’s family have drunk. * It used to be called the Archery Tavern: https://pubwiki.co.uk/LondonPubs/Paddington/BathurstSt4.shtml To celebrate we went for a drink at The Victoria.