04 DEC 2017: Readers of this column will know that if there’s an eating tour of a city I’m sure to sign up. Often it’s not just to get a good taste of the place but also to explore an area that I might overwise overlook. The Eating London Old Docks tour I recently took opened my eyes to a fascinating neighbourhood full of ghost stories, legends and historic pubs.
The London Old Docks Historic Pubs, Food and Beer Tour is a new offering of Eating Europe. The company was founded in Rome in 2011 by American native, Kenny Dunn who hails from Philadelphia. His informal culinary strolls with friends and family in that city became the Taste of Testaccio Food Tour. It became so popular he quit his job at the UN to handle tours full time. Today his company has tours and cooking classes in Rome, Florence, London, Amsterdam and Prague.
London operations manager Nicole Monaco went on an Eating Italy tour in Rome and it changed her life. Dunn asked her to test out the idea of eating tours in England and about five years ago they started up with a tour in the south east of London in Bermondsey in the Borough of Southwark.
There are now four tours of London available including one that pays homage to the Brit’s love of going for a curry. Apparently there are around 10,000 “curry houses” across the UK- more than there are in Mumbai. The Brick Lane 2.5 hour journey goes through London’s vibrant ‘Banglatown’ to take in the fragrant dishes, drinks, snacks and sweets of the area.
The London docks area is still largely unfamiliar to the broader London population and virtually unknown to tourists like me. The new Docks tour started by the Thames River where the ships used to dock centuries ago. After a brief history of the area, we walked down the narrow cobblestoned Rotherhithe Street to the oldest pub on the River Thames, The Mayflower, located in front of the home port of its namesake.
We learned the Mayflower set sail from here to America in 1620. (In July 1620, the Mayflower took on board 65 passengers from its London homeport of Rotherhithe on the River Thames. Rumour has it that Captain Christopher Jones cunningly moored here to avoid paying taxes further down the river. It journeyed onwards to Southampton for supplies. On 6th September, 1620, Captain Jones, now with 102 passengers and approximately 30 crew members, set sail from Plymouth, eventually anchoring at Cape Cod.) The voyage took 160 days and many aboard succumbed to scurvy, tuberculosis and other diseases. The pub cheerfully served up a traditional British brown ale they called scurvy with our bangers (pork and leek sausage) and mash.
This very cozy pub with a wood fire and outdoor deck overlooking the Thames (with warnings that at high tide you’ll likely get your feet wet) was an absolutely charming gem of a place. Run by likely the smallest pub company in England, The Rotherhithe, which owns just two pubs, the food and the atmosphere were delightful.
After that we took London’s tube one stop from Rotherhithe to Wapping to experience the first subway tunnel under a river in the world. When it opened in 1843 the Thames Tunnel was described as the Eighth Wonder of the World. Built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the tunnels are the oldest part of the London Transport network. Brunel’s father Marc began the tunnel with his teenage son, Isambard, who later became resident engineer. It is the only project that father and son worked on together, and Isambard’s first. The nearby Brunel Museum tells the story of one of the world’s great engineering dynasties. http://www.brunel-museum.org.uk
Our second stop, The Prospect of Whitby, could well be the oldest tavern on the riverside, dating back to 1520. It was previously called the Pelican and later the Devil’s Tavern as it was once the meeting place of smugglers, robbers and cut-throats. “Hanging” Judge George Jeffreys lived nearby and a replica gallows and noose hangs by the Thameside window, commemorating his method of dealing with criminals. The folk lore goes that he used a shorter rope so victims would hang there for three tides before they finally died.
This place is now owned by the largest pub company in England, the Greene King, which runs over 3,100 pubs, restaurants and hotels in the UK. Beers are from their two historic breweries but grub is pretty commercialized. We had their fish and chips with mushy peas, a traditional dish, of which I’ve had much better versions. The history of this place definitely overshadowed the food.
The third stop was about a 15-minute walk away in the Borough of Tower Hamlets. The pub, Turner’s Old Star, was a “free house,” owned by Bernice and Paul, independently of the breweries that supply it. The couple told us the family has owned this place on and off for thirty years. This was a Cockney area they said explaining that in order to be a cockney, one must have been born within earshot of Bow Bells, the bells of St Mary-le-Bow church.
As we learned about phrases from the Cockney rhyming slang (‘trouble and strive’ means wife, ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ is a guide, ‘tea-leaf’ translates to thief and so forth) we sipped on London Pride beer brewed in London along the Thames and munched on steak pie.
The fourth stop, Captain Kidd was an old coffee warehouse turned into an atmospheric pub. Here we drank Samuel Smith porter with pork scratchings (deep fried seasoned pork rind) while we sat outdoors by The Thames.
On the way to the final stop, The Dickens Inn, a beautifully restored 18th century warehouse in the heart of St. Katherine’s Docks, we passed stunningly gorgeous riverside condos and properties. We learned some of Britain’s most famous celebrities have homes here and I could see why.
The pub, owned by a large corporate catering company, had casino machines and large TV screens all about, more like a sports bar than a traditional pub. However the tasty English cheeses and cider washed away any qualms with the place.
The tour showcased an area of London full of history and charm. Now if I could only afford one of those trendy condos by the Thames.