The Guinea

The Guinea is a historic pub in Mayfair, London, occupying a site where an inn has stood since 1423 and features a rare surviving Victorian class-dividing screen inside its 1741 building. Named after the historic currency unit of one pound and one shilling, the pub became a famous steakhouse in 1952 under tenant Alistair. Its past guests include Frank Sinatra, Greta Garbo, and Bob Hope, whose autographs decorate the pub.

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

The Guinea, 30 Bruton Place, Mayfair, London W1J 6NL

What rare interior feature preserved inside The Guinea pub in Mayfair demonstrates Victorian social class division?

Take a look at this quiet little mews tucked behind the glamour of Berkeley Square. You'd barely notice it... but this backstreet has been pouring beer for over Six Hundred years.......... An inn has stood on this site since fourteen twenty-three β€” that's older than Mayfair itself. There has been a pub here for over five hundred years, longer than most of Mayfair, which wasn't developed until the late sixteen hundreds. So this little drinking den was here First, long before the grand townhouses and gentlemen's clubs arrived.......... Now, the pub's name hides a lovely detail. The name "Guinea" refers to a pre-decimalisation currency unit of one old pound and one shilling, much favoured by up-market establishments and professionals. The pub even used to have a sign reading "Ye Olde One Pound One." Very Mayfair, very posh.......... The present building was built in seventeen forty-one and licensed in seventeen fifty-four. Step inside and look for something most people miss... a rare low screen with a door separating two rooms β€” screens like this were once standard equipment in many London pubs. This is a survival of how Victorian pubs were divided by Class. Working men drank in the public bar. Wealthier customers sat behind the screen in the private bar, where nobody could see them. Most of these screens were ripped out decades ago, but here... time forgot.......... The Guinea has been a Young's pub since eighteen eighty-eight, and that's a connection worth knowing about. Young's Ram Brewery in Wondsworth was claimed to be Britain's oldest brewing site in continuous operation, with a history dating back to the fifteen fifties. So when you drink a Young's ale here, you're tasting a brewing lineage stretching back nearly five centuries.......... But here's where the story gets Really good. In nineteen fifty-two, a tenant by the name of Alistair leased the Guinea from Young's and transformed the business with a very simple idea. He realized that after the Second World War, Americans were beginning to holiday in Europe in big numbers. They'd travel through France and Italy, and by the time they reached British soil, they were desperate for a decent steak. There was no menu and no price list. You were simply given a knife and asked to place a mark on the raw steak to indicate what size you wanted. Can you imagine? You just... scored a line on a slab of Scotch beef and they'd cut it, weigh it, price it, and grill it for you right there.......... The Guinea Grill became the haunt of legends such as Frank Sinatra, Greta Garbo, Bob Hope, and Bing Crosby β€” some of whom left their autographs on the walls of the gents. You can still find autographs of famous visitors displayed there, including those of Bob Hope, Michael Douglas, and Graham Norton.......... And here's one more gem. On April twenty-first, nineteen twenty-six, Queen Elizabeth the Second was born at seventeen Bruton Street... a mere three-minute walk from this very pub. So raise a glass of cask ale to a backstreet boozer that's older than the neighbourhood, older than the brewery that supplies it, and was pouring pints just around the corner from where the future Queen drew her first breath. Cheers.

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