The Salisbury

The Salisbury is an historic Victorian palace pub on St Martin's Lane in London, renowned for its surviving 1898 interior with original 1899 Art Nouveau bronze light fittings. First licensed in 1694 as the Coach and Horses, the pub was rebuilt around 1898 on land leased from the Marquis of Salisbury. Mid-19th-century landlord Ben Caunt was a six-foot-two-inch boxing champion after whom Big Ben may be named.

London Β· from the walk β€œLast Orders Through the Ages” Β· audio ~3 min Β· Generated

The Salisbury, 90 St Martin's Lane, London WC2N 4AP

Why do the etched glass panels at The Salisbury pub feature the letters SS?

Take a look at this glittering corner of Saint Martin's Lane... and welcome to The Salisbury. What you're about to step into is not just a pub. It is a Time Capsule... one of the finest surviving examples of London's great Victorian palace pubs.......... This site was first licensed all the way back in sixteen ninety-four, when it was called the Coach and Horses. The five floors above the pub were used as a coaching inn for weary travellers to stay and rest. But here's where the story gets wild.......... In the mid-eighteen hundreds, the pub's landlord was a man named Ben Caunt... a bare-knuckle boxing champion known as the "Torkard Giant." He stood six feet two inches tall and weighed eighteen stone. Right here, or very near this spot, the Regency boxing crowd met and arranged fights for their various champions. And here's a detail that will stop you mid-sip... it is said that Big Ben, the famous bell at the Palace of Westminster, may actually be named after This pub's landlord β€” though the origin of the name is contested with Sir Benjamin Hall. Caunt's prosperous pub life ended in tragedy when the premises were destroyed in a fire that killed two of his children.......... The building you see today was rebuilt and refitted in spectacular style around eighteen ninety-eight, making it one of London's great turn-of-the-century palace pubs. The site was leased from the Marquis of Salisbury... hence the present name. Now, look closely at the etched glass around you. Can you spot a pair of letters... S S? That motif appears because the pub was originally called the "Salisbury Stores." And those stunning bronze figures? Art Nouveau nymphs holding long-stemmed flowers with light bulbs blooming from the center... said to be original fittings from eighteen ninety-nine.......... Now, run your hand along the bar counter. Notice where the bar top changes from marble to hardwood? That's a clue to how the pub was originally divided into separate drinking spaces β€” a classic Victorian arrangement where different social classes drank in different compartments.......... And the celebrity stories! Those brass tables in front of the main bar seating appeared in the famous black and white photograph of Marianne Faithfull by Gered Mankowitz, taken right here for her album "Come My Way" β€” and that photo now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. Richard Burton loved The Salisbury dearly. While filming "Where Eagles Dare" at Mgm in nineteen sixty-eight, he regularly visited... and on a couple of occasions, brought Clint Eastwood along.......... Camra has recognized this interior as "an historic pub interior of national importance." So when you order your cask ale here... you're drinking in one of the last authentic cathedrals of the great Victorian pub boom. Cheers.

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