HIDDEN LONDON [2] The Lamb Pub - Charles Dickens Local Hostelry!

Why a “Snob Screen” will be useful in these COVID-19 times.

The historic and beautiful Lamb Pub was built in the 1720s and named after William Lamb, [who had built a water conduit along the street in 1577] . Only two streets away Charles Dickens lived and wrote some of his most famous novels at 48 Doughty street. He was known to visit the pub after his nightly “Sojourns” around the West End looking for inspiration for such characters as Oliver Twist, Nancy and Bill Sykes.

It refurbished in the mid C19th and is one of the few remaining pubs with “Snob Screens ” beautifully etched, cut glass panels in wooden frames at head height all around the bar which swivel and allow [or not ] the drinker to see the bar staff, and vice versa. In our present Covid times, when the pub reopens they should act as the perfect way of screening the hard working bar staff from their customers coughs and sneezes. Other writers associated with the Lamb include Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath who were regulars at the pub, in the early days of their courtship.

A great and historic London pub to visit once the Covid sirens sound the “All Clear”

*The Lamb Pub, 94 Lamb's Conduit St, Holborn, London WC1N 3LZ