Not East End, but what the heck… I’m currently in a pub I’ve tripped over called the Cockpit, within the shadow of St Pauls, if it wasn’t for the houses in between. All around it are City drinking establishments the size of warehouses, which probably were warehouses, with décor by Lawrence Wotsit Bowen and Tai menus by Tai Industries. They are busy. The Cockpit is almost empty, and almost an old mans pub, which is making me inexplicably happy. There is red plush everything, a shove ha’penny board awaiting ha’pennies and the landlady-like landlady just said “Evenin’ gentlemen” as two gentlemen walked in, so I’m expecting Jack The Ripper next. Outside the curved double doors the bollarded street slopes sharply, down to a Thames that isn’t there anymore, but has become a major road. There is good Guinness and the only food available tonight is the scratching of pigs. And, best of all, it has some seriously iffy history. Built on the site of a house once said by someone (possibly a brewer) to be owned by Shakespeare, the Cockpit claims the present building was opened in 1842 as a cockpit, just seven years before the sport was banned, and then turned into a pub - and this small, wedge shaped room does have a very high ceiling and a little balcony around the top where they claim spectators gathered to watch the fatal cock related activities below. Hmmmm. That’s certainly one flimsy looking balcony, barely wide enough to accommodate an amble Dickensian arse. I suspect, like Dirty Dicks, we might be looking at a Victorian attempt at a theme pub here. But what the heck, the old Courage signs have cocks on them, so that’s authentic in a way, and there’s something so damn homely about this non-grey painted, non-pretend old crates from Billingsgate Market (made in China) interior that I want to move in tonight and grow old in a corner. They are friendly, the Pork scratchings are actually edible and they open on Sundays. Go! The Cockpit. Possibly a cock pit. 7 St Andrews Hill. Near Blackfriars station and the 388.
Posted on: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 19:16:02 +0000
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