The Mayflower is named after the Pilgrim Mayflower ship, which set sail from the site in 1620 to begin its journey to America. Though it only got its name in 1957, it is said to have some of the ship\u2019s original timbers incorporated into its structure.<\/p>\n
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Today, pubgoers who can prove direct descent from one of the Mayflower passengers can sign its \u201cDescendants Book.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every night, tourists step out of black cabs at the doors of the two pubs, trading the capital\u2019s modern skyscrapers for the storied streets of London\u2019s East End, lined with quaint terraced houses and red brick warehouses.<\/p>\n
In both pubs, they enter spaces where old paintings hanging on dark paneled walls and other mementos of their histories seem to leave the contemporary world behind.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere really is a feeling that you might have stepped back in time and could be drinking beer with sailors or pirates or anybody from any Dickens novels really,\u201d said Emily Godwin, a Londoner who has been to both. She spoke while sipping a pint of lager with friends at the Prospect on a recent summer evening.<\/p>\n
The Prospect boasts a pewter bar \u2014 the longest of its kind in Britain \u2014 where the infamous \u201cHanging Judge Jeffreys\u201d is said to have watched the many hangings that took place at the nearby \u201cExecution Dock.\u201d Early on, the pub was known as the Devil\u2019s Tavern due to its association with thieves and smugglers. A hanging noose outside serves as a reminder of the pub\u2019s grisly history.<\/p>\n
It \u201cfeels like such a pocket of history in London,\u201d Godwin said. \u201cSo much of London\u2019s East End feels very new and trendy, and the Prospect feels like it\u2019s barely changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
British pubs have always been at the center of social life, with locals coming together over a pint, even in times of war and economic hardship. But the last five years have been challenging for the industry as pubs contended with the COVID-19 pandemic and rising costs.<\/p>\n
This year, an estimated 378 venues are set to shutter across England, Wales, and Scotland, according to the British Beer and Pub Association.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen a pub closes, it puts people out of a job, deprives communities of their heart and soul, and hurts the local economy,\u201d said Emma McClarkin, head of the BBPA.<\/p>\n
Pubs across the country have been forced to find new ways to attract customers.<\/p>\n
History is a big draw for pubgoers, with a trip to a traditional British pub coming in high on tourists\u2019 London bucket lists, raising the stakes of the Prospect and the Mayflower\u2019s competition.<\/p>\n
The Prospect claims it was established in 1520, with its original flagstone surviving an arson attack in 1666 \u2014 the same year as the Great Fire of London. The pub was outside of the city limits at that time and was not affected by the conflagration that gutted the medieval city.<\/p>\n
Justin Billington, assistant manager at the Prospect, said some people date the pub to its full reconstruction in 1774 after the 1666 fire. But he doesn\u2019t see it that way, noting that it operated continuously. The day after the fire, the workers rolled out a barrel of beer that had survived the flames, and locals showed up with their tankards, drinking vessels, and enjoyed a drink on the spot.<\/p>\n
There were several reconstructions in the pub\u2019s subsequent history, but none withstood the salt water and shifting foundations of the Thames, Billington explained. Not, that is, until 1774 when the retired captain of a merchant ship called \u201cThe Prospect\u201d rebuilt it using the ship.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis rebuild held and continues to hold on for dear life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
If the pub was actually established in 1774, that would make the Mayflower \u2014 established in the 16th century \u2014 older.<\/p>\n
But there are no hard feelings between the pubs as Billington described their competition as a \u201cloving rivalry.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe compete against each other to be the oldest, and to serve the best food and drink,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But the question remains: How can either pub definitively claim the title?<\/p>\n
Unlike the title of the \u201cOldest pub in England,\u201d held by the Porch House in southern England, which is said to date to the 10th century, there is no official certification for the oldest pub in London.<\/p>\n
Guinness World Records said it has not formally awarded the title because of the complexities created by numerous name changes, relocations, and reconstructions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are lots of very old pubs that might make a claim to being oldest, but it could be contested because it could be argued they weren\u2019t always in \u2018London,\u2019\u201d English historian and author Jacob Field said. \u201cMany pubs have changed name over time, making it hard to claim they are the oldest.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Mayflower is named after the Pilgrim Mayflower ship, which set sail from the site in 1620 to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,51,393,4179,4884,257,16,15,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-310188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-general-news","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-london","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}