Book description
Welcome to the George Inn near London Bridge; a cosy, wood-pannelled,
galleried coaching house a few minutes' walk from the Thames. Grab
yourself a pint, listen to the chatter of the locals and lean back,
resting your head against the wall. And then consider this: who else has
rested their head against that wall, over the last 600 years? Chaucer
and his fellow pilgrims almost certainly drank in the George on their
way out of London to Canterbury. It's fair to say that Shakespeare will
have popped in from the nearby Globe for a pint, and we know that
Dickens certainly did. Mail carriers changed their horses here, before
heading to all four corners of Britain -- while sailors drank here
before visiting all four corners of the world... The pub, as Pete Brown
points out, is the 'primordial cell of British life' and in the George
he has found the perfect case study. All life is here, from murderers,
highwaymen and ladies of the night to gossiping pedlars and hard-working
clerks. So sit back and watch as buildings rise and fall over the
centuries, and 'the beer drinker's Bill Bryson' (TLS) takes us on an
entertaining tour through six centuries of history, through the stories
of everyone that ever drank in one pub.
