At the dawn of the Stuart dynasty that ruled both Scotland and England for over a century, a tavern was built on London's busy Fleet Street, at number 39. Believed to have first opened in 1603, William Shakespeare is reputed to have been one of its early customers, with the poet Richard Jackson later alluding to 'Shakespeare's Rime which he made at ye Myter in Flete Street'.
In 1639 the tavern was the scene of a duel between Charles Cotton and Sir John Hunt. Cotton, visibly drunk, convinced a gentlewoman in Hunt's company to go with him to the Mitre, 'upon which grew a quarrel'. Hunt was hurt in the abdomen and Cotton ran away. Hunt later recovered from his injuries and the men reconciled.
But it wasn't just Shakespeare who was a high profile patron of The Mitre. Eighteenth century writers Dr Johnson and James Boswell met there to discuss work, with Boswell writing in 1763 that Johnson's 'place of frequent resort was the Mitre tavern in Fleet Street, where he loved to sit up late'. Samuel Pepys was at the tavern in 1660 at the Restoration of the monarchy under Charles II. He visited on 18 February with Captain Holland and the clerk Mr Southorne. They drank at the Half Moon Tavern first and then went to The Mitre, hearing music in another room being played 'very plainly through the ceiling'. They left there and went to Mr Wotton's and then to an alehouse to discuss the city's plays before tying up some business relating to the Navy.
Pepys may well have left the tavern through the back entrance, which opened out onto Ram Alley, an adjacent street. In 1640 a meeting was recorded between Dr Percival Willoughby of Derby and 'old Will Poole the astrologer', who lived in the alley.
Kenneth Rogers has highlighted some of the characters that lived and worked in and near the tavern. In his 1928 work on The Mitre and Mermaid Taverns of Old London, he tells the story of Margaret Denham who seems to have positioned herself as a competitor of The Mitre. In 1644 she was summoned to the courts 'for selling ale and bere without lycence, and for keeping a disorderly house haveing a resort of both men and women of light behaviour late in the night'. Her lodging was recorded as The Adam and Eve in Ram Alley, seemingly a spontaneously opened premises without approval from the authorities. The comings and goings of her patrons was enough to worry the neighbours, who clearly informed the council.
A case of 1648-9 dealt with a Widow Baly who dwelled in The Mitre Tavern itself, and was accused of 'having Company in her house at unlawful times'. She continued the business after the death of her husband, John, who was named as landlord in 1647. Widow Baly looks like she had her work cut out for her, and there were attempts to keep the area clean and reputable. In 1649 the residents of Ram Alley behind the tavern were cautioned, as those who 'continually bring forth and lay their sea cole ashes and other noysom filth and soyle in the high street before the Alley Gate'. In 1652 pigs around the tavern snuffled freely, 'to the great Annoyance of neighbours and divers inhabitants dwelling in Fleet Street'. Another tavern, called The Cat and Fiddle, was also nearby. This earlier establishment dated to the mid-sixteenth century.
A Mrs Sutton was keeper of the Mitre in 1629, and in 1639 a Matthew Alsop is recorded as landlord. In that year he refused delivery of a batch of Spanish wines and was ordered to take them 'as other vintners do', or have his tavern closed down. A family named Webb is also recorded as keepers of The Mitre in the early 1600s. At the time of Pepys' visit, the landlord of the Mitre was Hugh Stedman.
The Mitre provided for drinks and socialising - and even a bit of business - but it also laid on entertainments. In 1733 Topham, a strong man, rolled up a large pewter dish with his hands, to the delight of the customers. It continued its association with creatives, scientists and thinkers, and the artist Hogarth drank and socialised at there. The Royal Society - a group of scientists and philosophers granted a royal charter for their work - also met here for dinner. In 1729 The Society of Antiquaries met at The Mitre, recorded in a line in a poem that they 'last winter on a Thursday night were Met in full senate at the Mitre'.
The Mitre closed as a tavern in the late 1700s, and was temporarily used as an auction house. In 1829 it was completely demolished to make way for a grand new banking building belongding to Hoare's. It was also around this time that another Mitre Tavern, or coffee house, was opened in Mitre Court in Fleet Street, in a separate location from where the old tavern stood. It was called The Mitre and Chop House in 1815.
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Bibliography
Bell, Walter G. Fleet Street in Seven Centuries. London, 1912.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1660/02/18/
Rogers, Kenneth. The Mermaid and Mitre Taverns in Old London. London, 1928.
