Prospect of Whitby

Coordinates: 51°30′25.56″N 0°3′4.15″W / 51.5071000°N 0.0511528°W / 51.5071000; -0.0511528
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The Prospect of Whitby
)

The Prospect of Whitby from the Thames foreshore, 2006
The Prospect of Whitby, street view
Interior, 2013

The Prospect of Whitby is a historic

public house on the northern bank of the River Thames at Wapping, in the East End of London and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lays claim to being the site of the oldest riverside tavern
, dating from around 1520.

History

The tavern was formerly known as The Pelican and later as the Devil’s Tavern, on account of its dubious reputation. All that remains from the building's earliest period is the 400-year-old stone floor, and the pub features eighteenth century panelling and a nineteenth century

North-East Passage
to China.

According to John Stow it was "The usual place for hanging of pirates and sea-rovers, at the low-water mark, and there to remain till three tides had overflowed them". Execution Dock was actually by Wapping Old Stairs and generally used for pirates.[4][5][6] In the eighteenth century, the first fuchsia plant in the United Kingdom was sold at the pub.[7]

Views from the pub were sketched by both Turner and Whistler.[8]

Following a fire in the early 19th century, the tavern was rebuilt and renamed The Prospect of Whitby, after a Tyne

Prince Rainier III of Monaco.[13]

On the opposite side of the road (Wapping Wall) is the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, later an arts centre and restaurant.

In popular culture

The video for Gilbert O'Sullivan's 1970 hit "Nothing Rhymed" was shot here, as he was living close by in a bedsit when he wrote the song.

The public house features briefly in an episode of

Second World War
in London.

In the comic book The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Mina Harker pauses in front of the public house and says it brings back memories. She is referring to the beaching of the Demeter at Whitby in the novel Dracula.[14][15]

This pub is also featured in Vercors's novel Les Animaux dénaturés (translated variously into English as You Shall Know Them, Borderline, and The Murder of the Missing Link).

The pub also appears in Whitechapel, Series 4, Episode 4, where the body of a victim is discovered on the Thames shoreline. DS Miles briefly explains its history to DI Chandler.

The pub features in several of Anna Harrington's Regency-era romance novels, most notably in An Unexpected Earl and An Extraordinary Lord, both in the "Lords of the Armory" series; the recurring comic character of Hugh Whitby in Harrington's "Capturing the Carlisles" series was named after the pub.

The pub also serves as the location for the final scenes in The Old Guard (2020).[16]

See also

References

  1. . Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  2. ^ Paris, Natalie (18 April 2013). "England's great pubs". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  3. . Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  4. ^ The Thames Tunnel, Ratcliff Highway and Wapping, Old and New London: Volume 2 (1878), pp. 128–37 Retrieved 29 March 2007
  5. . Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  6. ^ Smith, Oliver (18 February 2016). "London's 11 most notorious public execution sites". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  7. ^ . Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  8. ^ Attwooll, Jolyon (22 February 2016). "London's best historical pubs: the ultimate tour". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  9. ^ "London Pubs". Knowledge of London. Retrieved 18 September 2016.
  10. ^ Historic England. "Prospect of Whitby Public House (1357505)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 9 December 2008.
  11. Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. 17 September 1951. p. 2. Retrieved 11 September 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive
    .
  12. ^ "Jail for Prospect of Whitby Raiders". Yorkshire Evening Post. 19 March 1953. p. 7. Retrieved 11 September 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  13. ^ Harris, Pearl. "The Historic Pubs of London". Time Travel Britain. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  14. ^ Nevins, Jess (10 March 2002). "Notes on League of Extraordinary Gentlemen #2". Retrieved 22 September 2022.
  15. ISBN 978-1-4012-4083-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link
    )
  16. ^ "IMDB Trivia about The Old Guard (2020 film)". IMDb. Retrieved 19 December 2020.

External links

51°30′25.56″N 0°3′4.15″W / 51.5071000°N 0.0511528°W / 51.5071000; -0.0511528