{"id":312037,"date":"2025-08-02T13:39:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T13:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/312037\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T13:39:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T13:39:15","slug":"a-bitter-rivalry-two-pubs-claim-to-be-londons-oldest-riverside-pub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/312037\/","title":{"rendered":"A bitter rivalry? Two pubs claim to be London’s oldest riverside pub"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

What do you look for when choosing a public house?<\/p>\n

A wide variety of craft beers and crisp ciders? Decent pub grub? Appropriately pint-stained carpets? Or are you more keen on history?<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s the latter, London pubgoers\u00a0are in a bit of a pickle.<\/p>\n

In London\u2019s East End, a pub proudly hangs out a sign that reads \u201cOldest riverside pub in London.\u201d<\/p>\n

Across the Thames River, another pub makes the same bold claim.<\/p>\n

That’s right, following the battle for the title of the world\u2019s\u00a0oldest restaurant in Spain<\/strong><\/a> now comes the fight for London\u2019s oldest riverside pub, with both the Mayflower and the Prospect of Whitby laying claim to the title.<\/p>\n

Contender Number 1: Mayflower<\/strong><\/p>\n

Named after the Pilgrim Mayflower ship, which set sail from the site in 1620 to begin its journey to America, the pub is said to have some of the ship\u2019s original timbers incorporated into its structure.<\/p>\n

Today, pubgoers who can prove direct descent from one of the Mayflower passengers can sign its \u201cDescendants Book.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contender Number 2: Prospect\u00a0 of Whitby<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Prospect claims it was established in 1520, with its original flagstone surviving an arson attack in 1666 – 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’t 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

The pub boasts a pewter bar \u2013 the longest of its kind in Britain – where the infamous \u201cHanging Judge Jeffreys\u201d is said to have watched the many hangings that took place at the nearby \u201cExecution Dock.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

The pub was once 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There were several reconstructions in the pub’s 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

If the pub was actually established in 1774, that would make the Mayflower – established in the 16th century – older.<\/p>\n

But for all the talk of battle, Billington described the competition between his establishment and The Mayflower 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

So, which pub is the oldest, and how can either one definitively claim the title?<\/p>\n

Well, for a start, there is no official certification for the oldest pub in London.<\/p>\n

Guinness World Records<\/strong><\/a> 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 stated English historian and author Jacob Field. \u201cMany pubs have changed name over time, making it hard to claim they are the oldest.”<\/p>\n

The search continues.<\/p>\n

Pint, anyone?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ADVERTISEMENT What do you look for when choosing a public house? A wide variety of craft beers and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,25666,2348,257,15819,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-312037","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-guinness-world-records","12":"tag-history","13":"tag-london","14":"tag-pub","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312037","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=312037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}