Clerkenwell Green: Wat Tyler meets Richard II nearby in 1381; Shakespeare, Hogarth and Pepys are associated with it; Lenin edits "The Spark" whilst living here; Socialist protestors set out from here for Trafalgar Square on Bloody Sunday 1887.  Chartists and Home Rulers meet here.

Amidst all this No. 29, Clerkenwell Green has its own fascinating history

1580. Home to Francis Thynne, son of Henry Thynne, Clerk of the Kitchen and the Green Cloth to Henry VIII. Francis is the first editor of the works of Chaucer and is plagued by "that cruel tyrant, the unmerciful gout."

Educational benefactor, Erasmus Smith (1611-1692) lives here. He makes a fortune as a Turkey merchant and army contractor, supplying oatmeal, wheat and cheese for the troops in  Scotland and Ireland. In 1652 he receives a gift of land: 666 acres in County Tipperary.

1720. No. 29 is a tavern, name unknown, with a small brewery.

1805. The tavern is now known as the Fox and French Horn. A young man, John Britton, born 1771, later to be known as an antiquary, topographer and writer, is apprenticed to the tavern-keeper. John bottles wine in the cellar and "snatches an occasional hour for the perusal of his books".

The Times, 18th. June 1831:
"A good opportunity now offers to any person having a small capital to join partnership with an industrious man in a small brewery. ... The money required will not exceed from £60 to £70. ... For particulars apply at the Fox and French Horn, Clerkenwell-green."

In 1871 the tavern is open 20 hours out of every 24. It has a sanded floor and frosted windows; its walls are papered in a heavy flock, its ceiling is a mustard colour and it is lit by gas. The only food on sale is Cheddar cheese "of noble proportions" and baskets of "wholesome lunch biscuits". The customers in the saloon bar are labourers, cab-drivers, printers' devils and coster-mongers.

1883. The Times reports: John Jones Robinson 39, clerk, and Charles Rudge 64 ... of no occupation, were charged with forging and uttering a cheque on the London and County Bank, and obtaining a sum of £8.17s. from Mr. Jesse, landlord of the Fox and French Horn, Clerkenwell-green.
The punishment for this type of crime was hanging, or at the very least transportation for life. (Of special interest to today's clients: the first names of the two miscreants!)

Daisy Louisa Johnson, a "widow-lady", becomes the licensee in 1906.

Modern licensing hours are introduced during World War I.  Most likely reason: to curtail munition workers' lunch-time drinking!

From 1920 until the 1980s the premises are used as offices, with a break in the Fifties when they become workshops, first for a "watch-dial restorer" and then a "photo printer". Through the Eighties and Nineties there is a restaurant here.