Holly Bush Pub

The Holly Bush is a historic pub in Hampstead, London, originally built in the 1790s as stables for portrait painter George Romney. Adapted into catering facilities in 1807 and converted into a pub in the mid-19th century, the building retains Victorian features like an etched-glass snob screen. Its notable regulars have included Samuel Johnson, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards.

London Β· from the walk β€œHampstead Uncovered: Village Secrets & Heath Legends” Β· audio ~4 min Β· Generated

The Holly Bush, 22 Holly Mount, Hampstead, London NW3 6SG

What was The Holly Bush pub in London originally built for in the 1790s?

Look at this quiet lane you've just climbed. Holly Mount... a hidden stairway that most of London never discovers. And tucked right here at the top, the Holly Bush... one of the most atmospheric pubs in the entire city.......... Now, this building has a rather surprising origin. It was originally built as stables for Romney's House in the seventeen nineties. That's George Romney, the portrait painter... and here's where the story gets juicy. In seventeen eighty two, Romney was introduced to Emma Hamilton, then known as Emma Hart, who became his muse. He painted More than sixty portraits of her β€” as goddesses, as sorceresses, as ancient heroines. Romney described her as "the divine lady... superior to all womankind." Whether his obsession was purely artistic... has never been confirmed.......... In seventeen ninety seven, Romney left his studio at Cavendish Square, where he had worked for more than twenty years, to move here to Holly Bush Hill. He built a great house and studio to exhibit his Grand Tour finds and his own artworks β€” an effort that almost made him bankrupt. His health crumbled. In the summer of seventeen ninety nine, after an absence of almost forty years, Romney returned to his wife, Mary, in Kendal β€” the woman he had left behind four decades earlier. She nursed him until his death.......... After Romney was gone, his stables were adapted in eighteen oh seven to provide catering facilities for the Hampstead Assembly Rooms. In the mid nineteenth century, this became the pub as we know it today.......... And inside? Look for the details. The interior retains a fixed snob screen and a nineteenth century counter. What's a snob screen, you ask? It's a device from the Victorian era β€” an etched glass pane in a movable wooden frame, designed to allow middle class drinkers to see working class drinkers in the next bar... without Being seen themselves. Class snobbery, literally built into the furniture!......... Famous customers have included Doctor Samuel Johnson and his biographer James Boswell, and fast forward to the nineteen sixties β€” the Rolling Stones went to the Holly Bush because it was their local. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards lived on Holly Hill, just steps away. Rod Stewart and Britt Ekland were also regulars.......... And there's one more gem. The "Holly Bush" name itself nods to that age old tradition of hanging a branch or bush above the door of a pub to indicate that a drink could be had there. Before pub signs, before neon lights... a simple green branch said "come in, stranger."

...... So take a moment. Step inside if you like. A series of oaken rooms with etched glass panels and tactile wallpaper invite you to go back in time. You're standing where a heartbroken painter kept his horses... where Victorian snobs hid behind glass screens... and where rock and roll royalty came to escape the spotlight.

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