THE WHEATSHEAF

THE WHEATSHEAF - A LITERARY LONDON PUB

Last Thursday, Julian and I wanted to meet at a literary pub near to Tottenham Court Road Station, as the Elizabeth line connects to the Northern line, so I suggested The Wheatsheaf.

Outside, it is easy to spot the pub’s attractive (even though it’s mock-Tudor) fa?ade. Inside, there is a red theme to a lot of the décor. We sat on a leather banquette at the back, between a fireplace and a leaded window. Mirrors on the walls made the space feel a little larger. I drank Estrella on ice (it was a hot day). Julian was on the Strongbow and Timothy Taylor. The toilets and a dinning/function room are upstairs.

Patrick Hamilton used aspects of The Wheatsheaf as The Midnight Bell (1929), the fictional pub in his trilogy?Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky (1935).

‘Among the hundreds of taverns sliding back their bolts in the favoured domain was The Midnight Bell – a small, but bright and cleanly establishment, lying in the vicinity of the Euston Road and Warren Street. Though it had no wide reputation, all manner of people frequented The Midnight Bell. This was in its nature, of course, since it is notorious that all manner of people frequent all manner of public houses – which in this respect resemble railway stations and mad houses.’?(Quoted from chapter one of?The Plains of Cement (1934), the third book of the Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky trilogy.)

‘If there was a unified literary movement in the forties,’ said Anthony Burgess, ‘it was only in the sense of poets and poetlings moving together from The Wheatsheaf, which closed at ten-thirty, over to the Highlander (now called the Nellie Dean) in Dean Street …’

George Orwell?sometimes ate a late supper here and once he got sick here. Anthony Burgess thought Gilbert Wood’s stated phobia of rats in this pub gave Orwell the idea for Winston Smith’s terror in Nineteen Eighty-Four. A plaque outside the pub that announces Orwell ‘drank here!’

A second plaque outside tells us Dylan Thomas ‘drank here!’ but that doesn’t tell the full story. In fact, Augustus John introduced Thomas to Caitlin Macnamara, the woman who became his wife, in this pub.

Julian MacLaren-Ross would often prop up the bar. But, in November 1964, aged 52, to celebrate a royalty cheque he drunk a bottle of brandy at the Wheatsheaf and died of a heart attack.

These comedians (also writers) performed early in their careers here: Jo Brand, Bridget Christie, Stewart Lee and Cariad Lloyd.

Other notable writers who have dunk at the pub include: Anthony Carson, Quentin Crisp, Nina Hamnett, Edwin Muir and Philip O'Connor.

The Wheatsheaf, 25 Rathbone Place, Fitzrovia, W1T 1JB

Wikipedia: The Wheatsheaf

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