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Newman Arms

23 Rathbone Street
Fitzrovia
London
W1T 1NG

• (020) 7436 9777
• Send an email to the Pub
• thenewmanarms.co.uk/

Social Links

• Visit Newman Arms on Facebook
• Follow @NewmanArms on Twitter

Opening Times

Meal Times

12 - 9.30 Mon - Fri

Owner

Shaftesbury

About the Pub

After a period of closure for building works to be carried out, this site reopened in May 2018 under Truman's Brewery management, as their first Tap House in London. Truman’s have expanded the pub into the basement and increased the number of draught lines, to offer customers a wider range of beers. This is one of the first pubs in London to install a ‘crowler machine’ to fill 910ml (a pint and a half) cans with any draught beer on site for customers to take away. up to 4 cask ales plus 12 keg beers. Pies remain a speciality of the house; or if you don't want a pie, try a salad, or a salt beef or smoked salmon bagel.

Named after the local landowner William Berners, whose country seat was Newman Hall in Quendon, Essex, it's a small, narrow and cosy low-ceilinged pub, with a proper flagstone floor. The building dates from the 1720s and is thought to have once been a blacksmith, candle-maker's, picture framer's and brothel before being licensed as a beer house in 1863. It later became a favourite of George Orwell and the pub is believed to have been the model for the "Proles' Arms" in Orwell's dystopian novel "1984", the pub in which Winston Smith tries and fails to find out about life before the revolution. The basement snug names now give a nod to the famous book; they also have a dual purpose as a training facility for Truman's staff.

Note the almost Dickensian covered alleyway to the left, once unlit and nicknamed Murderer's Alley. The beer-only licence lasted until 1948 when wine was licenced to be sold, and finally a spirits licence was granted in 1960.

Historic Interest

One of the murder scenes from the controversial Michael Powell film "Peeping Tom" was filmed in the flat above the pub. Archive photos of this pub as a Charrington's Ales house may be seen at www.historypin.org/en/newman-arms.

Regular cask ales

This pub serves 1 regular beer.

• Truman's Swift

Changing cask ales

This pub serves 2 changing beers.

Changing beers typically include:

• Truman's --varies--

Updated on 11/12/2019
Last surveyed on 25/11/2016
Branch responsible is West London

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