THE WHITE HART

THE WHITE HART - A LITERARY LONDON PUB

The White Hart was established in 1721. The blue frontage has four coach lamps and hanging baskets containing plastic hanging flowers. Inside is wood panelled and narrow. There is a front and a back part. Thai food is served.

I was the only punter in the pub at 1.30pm on Monday so a chatted to the friendly barman before the others arrived. Bob, Henry (that’s me), John, Margaret, Nicky, Roy and?Tim met here on Monday 22nd April. We sat at tall chairs with a tall table near the front. I drank London Pride.

For me, The White Hart was the first place I read from my collection The Penitent’s Rose (2024). The White Hart is featured in the short story?Crossrail for its links to Jack the Ripper.

The pub is on many Ripper Tours and has a large mural commemorating Martha Tabram’s murder - at George Yard, on her way home on 7 August 1888, she was stabbed to death: The death of Martha Tabram marked the prelude to what became known as ‘The Autumn of Terror.’ It is believed Martha had her last drink in the White Hart. Three nights later she was found with 39 stab wounds at the back of the pub.

George Chapman set up as a barber in the basement of pub. He went on to poison three of his wives with antimony. After being convicted, he was hanged on April 7 1903.?He is one of the Jack the Ripper suspects.

In Stewart Home’s Memphis Underground?(2007) the pub is visited by the narrator: ‘So we went out to The?White Hart?on Whitechapel High Street and Swanky bought me Adnams. I ended up in The?White Hart?more often than the pub merited, mainly on account of my weakness for Adnams Suffolk Ales, which weren't that?widely available in London. The White Hart didn't get too crowded, unless there'd been an opening on at the nearby Whitechapel Gallery.?The drinkers were usually a mix of city types and locals who didn't quite gel together.’ (p119)

There are many pubs in England named the White Hart. In English Folklore, the white hart is associated with?Herne the Hunter. The?White Hart?(‘hart’ being an archaic word for a mature stag) was the badge of Richard II. Arthur C. Clarke?wrote Tales from the White Hart (1957), which used as a framing device the idea that the tales were told during drinking sessions in a fictional central London pub.

?Beside the pub, up Angel Alley you can find Freedom Press who East London Lines say: ‘Is keeping radical literature alive in East London.’ Before going into the pub, I popped into the anarchists’ second-hand bookshop.

The White Hart, 89 Whitechapel High Street, Whitechapel, E1 7RA

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