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Bloomsbury Tavern

236 Shaftesbury Avenue
Bloomsbury
London
WC2H 8EG

• (020) 7379 9811
• Send an email to the Pub
• bloomsburytavern.co.uk/

Social Links

• Visit Bloomsbury Tavern on Facebook

Opening Times

Meal Times

12 - 6
closed Sun

Owner

Shepherd Neame

About the Pub

Said to date from 1856 and Grade II listed, it was called the Black Lion until rebuilt in 1905 to the design of C Fitzroy Dell. Half-way between Holborn & Tottenham Court Road Underground stations, the pub is handily placed for visiting the British Museum, Covent Garden and Theatreland. Legend has it (and is claimed by various local pubs - take your pick!) that the Tavern was the last drinking spot between Newgate Prison and present-day Marble Arch for condemned criminals before being hanged at Tyburn Tree. A resident ghost is also claimed. Closed Sundays and public holidays.

Historic Interest

Grade II listing:- Public house. 1904. By C Fitzroy Doll, surveyor to the Bedford Estate and the local District Surveyor. Red brick with white terracotta decoration, slate roof hidden behind parapet and with massive banded stacks. EXTERIOR: 4 storeys and cellars. Prominent corner site dominated by 2-storey oriel with copper dome over entrance, with single window to Shaftesbury Avenue and 4 to West Central Street. Oriel of white terracotta with hefty mouldings and decorated panels; other windows above ground floor mullion and transom, those to first floor in continuous white surround; the upper windows linked by bands and those in centre of West Central Street composition lowered. Restored ground floor with late C20 fenestration having heraldic glass set in black polished granite surrounds featuring columns with lion capitals. INTERIOR retains 1904 Arts and Crafts style fireplaces to ground and first floors. Open-well staircase with turned timber balustrades and panelled walls. Some panelling to first floor bar and to rear of ground floor bar, which has original cornice behind later bar back but where the bar counter and the fixed seating has been renewed in historicist style.

Regular cask ales

This pub serves 4 regular beers.

• Shepherd Neame Amber Ale
• Shepherd Neame Kent's Best
• Shepherd Neame Master Brew
• Shepherd Neame Spitfire

Updated on 06/01/2019
Last surveyed on 02/08/2013
Branch responsible is North London

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