The Seven Stars — Elizabethan Lawyers' Local

The Seven Stars on Carey Street in London is a historic pub dating to at least the seventeenth century, originally named to attract Dutch sailors when the nearby River Fleet was navigable. The establishment features unique etched-glass doors marked private counter and general counter rather than standard bar labels. Situated on a street famous for nineteenth-century bankruptcy courts, The Seven Stars is also known for naming pub cats after figures like Clement Attlee.

London · from the walk “Secrets of Lincoln's Inn Fields” · audio ~3 min · Generated

The Seven Stars, 53 Carey Street, London WC2A 2JB

Why was The Seven Stars pub in London originally named after Dutch provinces?

Look at this tiny, crooked facade. You're standing before The Seven Stars on Carey Street... one of the most storied pubs in all of London, and quite possibly the oldest still pouring pints.......... The date on that hanging sign reads sixteen oh two. That would place it in the reign of Queen Elizabeth the First herself. Now, historians do quarrel about this. The pub's own website insists on that date, but Pevsner's architectural guides argue the building is more likely from the sixteen eighties. And here's the delicious thing... even Historic England hedges its bets in the Grade Two listing, saying only "perhaps seventeenth century in origins."

...... But whatever the exact date, here's what's truly fascinating. Why would a pub tucked into the legal quarter of London be named after Dutch sailors? Because it wasn't always a lawyers' local. The original name was The League of Seven Stars... a direct reference to the seven united provinces of the Netherlands. Back then, the River Fleet was still navigable, and sailing barges from foreign countries could moor within easy reach of this spot. The name was a shameless marketing ploy to attract Dutch merchant shipmen, who were famously fond of a tipple. When the three Anglo-Dutch wars soured relations later that century, the word "League" was quietly dropped. Too politically toxic for business.......... And here's a detail most people walk right past. Look at the two entrance doors. The etched glass reads "private counter" on the left... and "general counter" on the right. Those terms are believed to be Unique in all of London's pubs. Every other establishment used "private bar" and "public bar." Nobody knows why The Seven Stars chose different words.......... Now, Carey Street itself carries a dark reputation. In the eighteen forties, the bankruptcy courts moved here, and the phrase "being on Carey Street" became slang for financial ruin. Imagine... barristers stumbling out of this pub after losing a case, stepping onto the very street synonymous with going broke.......... And then there are the cats. This pub has a long tradition of resident felines, each one named with mischievous wit. Tom Paine... named after the revolutionary. Then came Ray Brown, then Peabody, and most recently... Clement Attlee, named after the post-war prime minister, who during the Covid lockdown was taken home by a member of staff and never came back. Even Charles Dickens is thought to have drawn on this neighborhood. His fictional Magpie and Stump pub in The Pickwick Papers, where "choice spirits assembled," is believed by some to have been inspired by the very drinking holes along this stretch.......... Four centuries of whispered verdicts, Dutch sailors, bankrupt dreamers, and cats in Elizabethan ruffs. Not bad for a pub so small it didn't even have a toilet until about the year two thousand.

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