Borough Market & The Anchor Bankside

The Anchor is a historic pub on Bankside in London where a tavern has stood for over eight centuries and diarist Samuel Pepys watched the Great Fire of London in September 1666. Originally serving as the tap room for the Anchor Brewery founded in 1616, the building also operated as a brothel, chapel, and smugglers' haunt. The adjacent brewery became the world's largest by 1809, producing 260,000 barrels annually, before its demolition in 1981.

London Β· from the walk β€œLast Orders Through the Ages” Β· audio ~4 min Β· Generated

The Anchor, 34 Park Street, Bankside, London SE1 9EF

Why did The Anchor pub on Bankside survive the Great Fire of London in 1666?

Take a deep breath... and a deep sip. You're standing outside The Anchor on Bank-side, and beneath your feet lies over Eight Hundred years of drinking history. A tavern has stood on this very spot for more than eight centuries. But this wasn't just any alehouse. The Anchor started life as the brewery tap room for the Anchor Brewery, first established in sixteen sixteen. That means every pint pulled here came straight from the source... the freshest beer in all of South-wark.......... Now, picture this. It's September, sixteen sixty-six. London is on Fire. The Great Fire is devouring everything north of the Thames. And right here, safe on the south bank, a man named Samuel Pepys takes a seat. The famous diarist observed the Great Fire from this very spot, writing that he took refuge in "a little alehouse on Bank-side" and watched the fire grow. Now here's a detail most people get wrong... Several guidebooks claim the Anchor was rebuilt after the Great Fire destroyed it, but that was Impossible, because the fire never reached the southern side of the Thames. The pub survived. London didn't.......... But the real beer story here runs even deeper. Throughout its history, this building has served as a tavern, a brothel, a chapel, a brewery, and a ship's chandler's. And it was a favorite haunt of river pirates and smugglers. During repairs in the early nineteenth century, workers removed a massive oak beam and discovered ingeniously contrived hiding places... probably used for storing stolen goods and contraband.......... Now, the Anchor Brewery behind this pub became one of the great powerhouses of English beer. Henry Thrale managed the brewery in the eighteenth century, becoming a prominent figure in London's brewing trade. And his closest friend? None other than Doctor Samuel John-son, the man who wrote the first English dictionary. Johnson had his Own room at the brewery, and his favorite chair was kept in the boardroom for some time after his death. When Thrale died in seventeen eighty-one, Johnson described the brewery as "the potentiality of wealth beyond the dreams of avarice."

...... And he wasn't exaggerating! Robert Bar-clay of the banking family bought it, went into partnership with the chief clerk John Per-kins, and increased output to two hundred sixty thousand barrels a year by eighteen oh nine, making it the Largest brewery in the world. The brewery became famous for its Russian Imperial Stout, which was widely sold across the continent.......... The great Anchor Brewery was finally demolished in nineteen eighty-one. But the tap room... the pub... survived. Just as it survived the Great Fire, the Blitz, and centuries of change. So if you step inside for a pint, know this... you're drinking where Shakespeare's actors drank, where Pepys watched a city burn, where pirates hid their loot, and where the world's largest brewery once thundered away just behind the back wall.

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