The French House: The Free French Sanctuary and Half-Pint Rule

Why is it significant?

Stop outside the bold red frontage of The French House on Dean Street, where the clink of glassware and animated chatter spill onto the pavement.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Stop outside the bold red frontage of The French House on Dean Street, where the clink of glassware and animated chatter spill onto the pavement. Step inside this beloved sanctuary of Soho bohemians, where to this very day mobile phones and television screens are strictly forbidden, and draft beer is served traditionally only in half-pint glasses, encouraging patrons to focus entirely on genuine conversation and artistic debate.

During the dark days of the Second World War, General Charles de Gaulle made this pub his unofficial London headquarters. In an upstairs room, de Gaulle penned his stirring nineteen forty radio address rallying the Free French forces to resist the Nazi occupation.

In subsequent decades, painter Francis Bacon, poet Dylan Thomas, and author Brendan Behan held court at the brass-edged mahogany counter. Legend has it that Dylan Thomas once famously left the original handwritten manuscript of his immortal radio play Under Milk Wood under one of the bar stools after an exuberant evening of celebration.

Walk down Dean Street toward Old Compton Street, the culinary and cultural spine of Soho's vibrant community.