Falcon, Gough Sq.

In a spy report from 23 June, 1794, spy Metcalfe gave a rare glimpse into what an LCS meeting might have involved:

Went in Company with Burks and Davis to the Falcon in Gough Square, where Division 9 which had been nearly dispersed had been assembled, there was 30 present and it appeared to be an Evening of pleasure rather than business, many very Treasonable Songs were sung and they did not break up until past 12 oClock (Thale 1897; TS 11/956/3501).

This was the second of two meetings that Metcalfe had attended that evening (the other was a meeting of the Div. 6 at the Parrot in Green Harbour Court by the Old Bailey). And while Metcalfe's reports tended to a zealous conservatism, determined to show the malefactors of the LCS in the worst possible light, his report on the earlier meeting had conceded that there was nothing of interest to report. The evident glee with which Metcalfe reported on the "evening of pleasure" at the Falcon and the "Treasonable songs" they sung may well have been heavily colored by his loyalist sentiments, but this is not to say they were untrue.

Despite Goddard's claim in Hardy's Treason Trial of 1794 that he had never heard songs sung at LCS meetings, there is plenty of evidence that songs were indeed sung. Metcalfe enclosed a copy of one song that he says he heard at the meeting called "Parody on the Song of Poor Jack," printed by Thomas Spence. According to Thale this song "contemptuously dismissed Richmond and Burke, it concludes that the time is near when Britons "shall assert their demand," and that tyrants shall never rule this island" (Thale, 187 n. 91).


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The Falcon was (somewhat confusingly) located very near the Falcon on Fetter Lane, in one of the mazey allies to the north of Fleet Street near where Samuel Johnson lived (Johnson lived at 17 Gough Square). It had been there at least since 1768, when it was listed as one of the addresses at which E. Graves of Shadwell could be contacted by those gentlemen who wanted to decorate their ceilings with "ornaments of paper-machee."

In August 1835 it was insured to a John Crump with the Sun Fire Office, which lists the address as Goldsmith Street, a small alley with around 10 residences just off Gough Square (Guildhall Library, MS 11936/546/1202777).

In 1846 it was registered as the address of the "Falcon Coal Club," (see Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons, 1877)




In a letter to Scottish Notes and Queries in October 1902, J.F. George observed that when he used to lunch occasionally at the Falcon it was a house that was "much resorted to by overseers and machine operators from the neighboring printing offices."

It remained on the site until around 1944, when it was run by Mr and Mrs Cliff Taylor, who removed to the Golden Lion in Kings Street, most likely because of damaged sustained to Gough Square in the second world war.

(Thanks to Mike Weaver, via deadpubs.co.uk).

I have been unable to locate precisely where the Falcon was on Gough Square. Goldsmith Street on which it was located, no longer exists, buried somewhere underneath Pemberton House. This image of Gough Square from 1902, however, gives an idea of the Square itself before the post-war redevelopment.

Robert Randall, 1902, London Metropolitan Archives, Pr.267/GOU

Falcon, Fetter Lane

At a meeting of the LCS Northern District Committee on the 29th of January 1796 it was reported" "Div. 13 to Branch to the Falcon Fetter Lane to be No 90 Dep Evans. Rhynd MackNaughton to open it" (Thale 340; PC 1/23/A38).

The Falcon was located at 10 Fetter Lane, on the East side near Fleet Street.


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At the trial of James Jones for theft in 1822, the victim, Alice Robinson described how she had gone into the Falcon with her husband, a mariner, at around 2pm in the afternoon, having been taken into the pub to get some "directions about a ship." They were taken into the back room of the Falcon, where initially there was only one other man, though they were later joined by two more men, including Jones. The man who had bought them to the alehouse and Jones proceeded to play what amounted to an elaborate game of heads or tails, at which Jones lost. Jones then accused the others of being poor people who intended to rob him. At the encouragement of her husband Alice Robinson showed the man two five pound notes which she had with her in order to demonstrate that they were not poor and didn't need his money. The man who had originally accompanied them into the Falcon then snatched the money out of her hands and passed it along to James Jones, who ran out of the room. Alice chased Jones out of the room into the passageway, while her husband seized the man who had offered them direction for the ship. A fight ensued which spilled out onto the street, and concluded with the capture of Jones in a grocers shop. In the trial Jones claimed that he had won the money of Robinson in a bet, he was found guilty and sentenced to be transported for life.

The trial reveals several interesting things about the Falcon. In terms of the architecture it is clear that there was a back room, which could be accessed directly from the street by a passageway. There was also, presumably, a front room that had a separate enterance. Alice, who had a certain amount of money, was able to enter into the back room of the Falcon (accompanied by her husband) at 2pm without her respectability being called into question. Gambling seems to have been common practice in the pub's back room, and the landlord, who enters the room at several points to bring beer, and pen and ink, raises no objection to the gambling, which seems to have involved at least four out of the five people in the room, even though the Robinson had never met Jones and his accomplice before.

This seems to have been a medium-sized public house, somewhere between an alehouse and a tavern, which could be understood as either.

The earliest record of its existence is April 1739, when a meeting of fan painters was held here (London Evening Post, April 24-26, 1739), though there are references to a "Golden Falcon" on Fetter Lane as early as 1710.

In April 1795 a meeting of Uncertified Bankrupts, which had previously met in the highly respectable Crown and Anchor, took a step downmarket to meet here.

In 1791 the Falcon was offered for lease. It was described in the advertisements as a highly valuable property consisting of two separate, but related businesses. One side "was fitted up with much judgement for carrying on the Spirit and Wine trade, the other side for the Tavern and Public Line, having such commodious rooms for company and such conveniences as scarcely can be equalled. The whole in excellent repair, there having been upwards for 300l. laid out within six months thereon for that purpose; the rent moderate and the return near 200l a month." (Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, May 30, 1791).

In the 1850s the Falcon was frequently used by the Freemasons, suggesting that by then (if not before) it was a relatively respectable house.

Deadpubs.co.uk lists Post Office records for the Falcon and 10 and 11 Fetter Lane from 1856 continuing until 1923.

Fetter Lane was badly damaged during the second world war, though the Falcon seems to have survived. Records at the Corporation of London Records Office list alterations, including plans, made to the building in 1923, 1933, 1951 and 1954 (COL/SVD/PL/02/0497 1923 - 1954).

This photograph in the London Metropolitan Archives, shows the Falcon still functioning in 1970. The site is now occupied by a branch of Books etc.

Elliots Head, Mitcham

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In the minutes of an LCS General Committee, from 10 September 1795 it is reported that at an apparently fractious meeting, Division 57:

requested a deputation to go to Mitcham to morrow evening to meet at the Elliots head the other side of Newington at 1/4 before 5 O'Clock.
To be No 60 deputed Haselden, Hiram Powell B Binns
Morgan, Haselden resigned -
Movd & Sec'd that Citn Patton be heard - Neg, -
(Thale, 302; Add MSS 27813, fos 126-9)

Mitcham, at about 9 miles to the South of Westminster Bridge, was a significant journey from London, but evidently close enough that deputations could be expected to travel there from the Metropolis. According to Daniel Lysons "The Environs of London" published in 1792, there were around 450 houses in Mitchum, with a substantial amount of land (250 acres) used for "physic gardeners, who cultivate lavender, wormwood, camomile, aniseed, rhubarb, liquorice, and many other medicinal plants, in great abundance; but principally peppermint, of which there are above 100 acres. The demand for this herb is not consined to the apothecaries shops, it being much used in making a cordial well-known to the dram-drinkers."

I have been unable to find any records of an Elliots Head in Mitchum, although another public house of that name was in the new development of Prospect Place in St George's Fields near Lambeth.

Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, Monday, March 23, 1795.

Powell, listed as one of the deputed men, was a spy. His report listed the meeting place as the Buck's Head, not the Elliot's Head, so this could simply be an error in the LCS minutes.

Duke's Head, St Martin's Lane

A report from Spy Powell on a LCS General Committee meeting on 24 September 1795 states: "A Society meeting at the Duke's Head St Martins Lane (to which a deputation was sent to hold a conference last week) sent a letter that they were willing to become a division of the London Corresponding Society. The Committee gave them the No 68 & appointed a deputation to open it."

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The area around St Martin's Lane appears to have operated as a radical stronghold in the late 1790s, and indeed for the early decades of the nineteenth century. Iain McCalman identifies the Angel in Cecil Court as one of the alehouses which became a focal point for resistance to the attempts by City magistrates to close down or frighten alehouses that hosted LCS divisions, and which "recurred as radical venues in later years" (Radical Underworld, 1988, p.115). The Duke's Head was located at number 37 St Martin's Lane, on the site which is currently occupied by Bertorelli, and Italian restaurant (unusually the house numbering appears unchanged since the 1790s). According to an anecdote in the Gentleman's Magazine for June 1795, this was next door to the "immortal mansion of the great Sir Issac Newton" which was later occupied by Dr Burney. The Duke's Head, the correspondent claimed, "was rebuilt some time ago, and between the wainscot and the old walls was found the remains of a cat in the act of devouring a huge rat."


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Deadpubs.co.uk has found listings for the Duke's Head in various directories and census data, starting in 1839, and continuing until 1899. Sun Fire Office Records held at the Guildhall Library confirm that the Duke's Head existed from at least 1791 (when it was insured to Thomas Underwood). In 1816 it was the site of a violent robbery, for which there was a trial at the Old Bailey.

Dog and Duck, Bond Street

According to the minutes of an LCS General Committee meeting on 13 August 1795, division 28 "Branches to Dog & Duck Bond St." The new branch was to be designated div. 49, and would meet on Wednesdays. The LCS minutes list "French, Gibbons, Read, Hewit" as member of the new division. A Report from Spy Powell from the meeting, however, lists a different set of names: "Willson, Constable, Pelton & Mc.Guire to open it" (Add MSS 27813 fos. 101v-7v; PC 1/23/A38; Thale 285-7).

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A well-known pub called the Dog and Duck that stood on St George's Fields in Southwark, but this was not the one used by the LCS. I have been unable to find a Dog and Duck in Bond Street, however a number of nearby streets including Ducking Pond Mews and Ducking Pond Row (now Grafton Street) refer to the popular sport of duck hunting, in which dogs were trained to catch ducks whose wings had been clipped and were compelled to dive underwater to avoid capture. This was apparently popular in Mayfair, and was presumably where the Dog and Duck got its name. Reginald Colby's Mayfair: A Town Within London, asserts that there was "an old half-timbered public house with a garden attached at the lower end of Hertford Street" called the Dog and Duck.

Writing in 1903 for Walter Besant's series on The Fascination of London, G.E. Mitton wrote that the Dog and Duck was on Carrington Street "behind which was a pond 200 feet square, where the sport of duck-hunting was pursued in the eighteenth century. The site is now marked by Ducking Pond Mews." Ducking Pond Mews no longer exists, but Carrington Street does. It is a small street leading to an NCP car park.


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Carrington Street today.

Crown and Thistle, Peter Street

According to a report from spy Kennedy from c. 20 November 1792, Division 4 met in the "Crown & Thistle Peter St Westr" (TS 11/959/3503; Thale 29). The report is brief, simply stating that the meeting was "Partly of the same Tenor" as the meeting of div. 3 (held on 14 Nov at the Green Dragon in King Street Golden Square). Kennedy's report from the div. 3 meeting states "Their principle conversation was respecting the reform & each firmly resolv'd to support each other in the business to see themselves righted but without any violence whatever."

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According to the Survey of London, Peter Street, which is a small passage west of Wardour Street in Soho, probably gets its name from a saltpetre house which was built in 1656. "In 1720 Peter Street was described as 'a Street not over well inhabited', and in the 1830's as 'a short dirty street, without any thoroughfare'. By the late nineteenth century the buildings had become 'wretched hovels, and a disgrace to humanity'."


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As befitting an area which is a disgrace to humanity I have been unable to locate further information about the Crown and Thistle, though Horwood's map shows that a large brewery belonging to Sturkey and Co occupied a large plot at the end of the Peter Street. Whether the Crown and Thistle had any connection with the brewery is unknown.

Crown, Newgate Street

In October 1792, the spy George Lynam joined Div. 12 of the LCS which met at the Crown in Newgate Street. His report of this meeting was brief: "Read the Copy of the Address to the French Convn. which was first proposed by the Meeting at the Unicorn and brought forward the 27 Septr. last" (TS 11/959/3505; Thale 25).

Lynam had in fact been partially responsible for the LCS meeting at the Crown, having warned the landlord of Mansion House -- the previous meeting place of division 12, about the unconstitutionality of the LCS (see ST vol 24, cols 763 & 805). This must have been on Oct 24 at the latest.

At Hardy's Trial Lynam mentioned that he was also present at a meeting of Div. 12 at the Crown on 31st of October. According to Lynam the Address to the French Convention was reported (ST vol 24 col 765)

On 14 November 1792 Lynam gave an account of a general meeting of the LCS at the Unicorn in Henrietta Street. At this meeting it was reported that a meeting had taken place on the same day at the Crown in Newgate Street (TS 11/959/3505; Thale 26-7). At Hardy's Trial Lynam revealed that he had also attended the meeting at the Crown, but that nothing material happened there (ST vol 24 col 766).

Spy Christopher Kennedy also reported that a meeting of Div. 12, consisting of about 40 people, met at the Crown on 14 Nov. 1792: "Heard the Society was to be remov'd to Finsbury Square on Tuesdays -- Also that Mr Erskine was to be council in behalf of Mr Paine." The delegate was reported as Freemantle (TS 11/959/3505; Thale 29).

Lynam was again present at a meeting of Div 12 at the Crown on 21 November 1792. A government paraphrase of his report state: "21 Novr. -- The Witness [Lynam] was present at the Meeting of Division No. 12 at the Crown in Newgate Street when the report was made from the Committee of Delegates of the Letter having been received from Norwich... enquiring whether the London Correspg Society ment to rest Satisfied with the Duke of Richmonds Plan only or whether it was their private intention to rip the Monarchy by the Roots & place Democracy in its sted, -- The Delegates suspected this might be some scheme to draw them into some unwarrantable expressions & declined answering" (TS 11/954/3498; Thale 31).

At Hardy's trial, Lynam claimed that Division 12 had branched off into Division 23 on 21st of November, and met at the Ship in Moorfields on 27th November, and that he was appointed delegate at the 27th November meeting. (ST vol 24. 767; TS 11/959/3505; Thale 31).

The final meeting at the Crown appears to have been in February 1793. On 21 February 1793 Lynam reported that "Field met Division No 12 at yd Crown Newgate Street. They where refused a room 2 Common Council being there saying they wo'd take away the licence if entertain'd --" (TS 11/958/3503; Thale 52).

The Crown was located near the corner of Newgate Street and Warwick Lane, just to the South of Crown Court. Floor plans from 1796 held at the London Metropolitan Archive, show a three rooms, labelled "Room," "Barr," and Tap Room." It was part of the Bridge House Estate.


The house measured approximately 20 feet by 50 feet. According to John Summerson's Georgian London the size and shape of London houses were determined by the need to get as many houses as possible onto one street. This resulted in a simple plan consisting of "one room at the back and one at the front on each floor with a passage and staircase at one side. On a site as narrow as twenty-four feet hardly any other arrangement is possible; in broader sites it is still a perfectly satisfactory and economical arrangement." Given the width of the plot of the Crown it is unsurprising that it adheres broadly to this plan -- known as the "standard" or "Summerson" plan. (See Neil Burton and Peter Guillery, Behind the Facade: London House Plans, 1660-1840. Reading: Spire Books, 2006, p. 14).

Floor plan of the Crown, along with a three room building stretching from Newgate Street to Crown Court. (London Metropolitan Archive COL/CCS/PL/01/202/61). Click to enlarge.

More recent studies have complicated the idea of the standard plan, and demonstrated the number of variations that existed on this basic design. The Crown modifies the standard plan by adding an extra room to the back, which provided another entrance to Crown Court. A substantial chimney with fireplaces in both the "Barr" and the back "Room" suggests that this back room was a feature of each of the floors and was not merely an extension on the ground floor.

It is not clear how many floors the house had, though the plans show two flights of stairs: one at the front of the house, on Warwick Lane, and one at the side of the second "bar" room.  It was common to have an uncovered staircase at the front of the house which would lead to the basement, but the floor plan suggests that the front stair case was covered -- the wall at the front of the stairs being more substantial that the thinner dividing wall that separates the Tap Room from the corridor containing the staircase. There also appears to be an entrance into the Crown from the narrow corridor (entrance could be gained by a door on Warwick Lane that took the patron along the passageway into the back of the Tap Room). It seems likely that these narrow, covered stairs would provide access to both the basement and to the upper rooms, and may well have functioned as an means of access for the landlord or for people living on other floors, so they didn't disturb patrons in the Crown by using the larger staircase behind the "barr".

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Unusually the house had no window on the Warwick Lane frontage. Instead light entered through windows on Crown Court, on which the main entrance was also located. The plan also shows a window at the back of the pub (on the South side of the "Room"). According to Horwood's map, this would have looked out onto the yard belonging to the Bell Inn. As an inn, the Bell would have had stables for horses and both horses and humans would have regularly passed the Crown's back window. The building that Horwood shows stretching back from Newgate Street into the open area shared by the Crown and the Bell was number 17 Newgate Street, better known as the Cat and Salutation. This was a favorite haunt of the twenty-two year old Coleridge, where he, Lamb and other Pantisocrats in  1794-6, indulged in "pipes, tobacco, Egghot, welch Rabbits, metaphysics and Poetry." (Letters of Charles and Marry Anne Lamb,  ed Edwin Marrs. Ithica and London, 1975-8, i. 65.)

One further point of interest regarding Horwood's map: Horwood's plan to number each of the houses on his map was not entirely successful, and Warwick Lane was one of the areas where his numbering system broke down. Part of the difficulty, it seems, was the problem of what constituted a "house." The Crown's three rooms are represented on Horwood's map separately, and it is not hard to imagine that, were they not used as a public house, each of the rooms could have been used separately as individual residences.

Presumably when Horwood conducted his surveys for his map he was only looking at outer walls, and had to guess how they were divided up internally. Horwood also marks four separate houses in the area going south from Newgate Street to Crown Court. On the floor plan in the London Metropolitan Archive this was a single, narrow building consisting of three rooms -- a "shop," a "parlor," and a "yard" (a window from the parlor to the yard indicates that the yard would have been a walled, enclosed but uncovered area). The building was 15.5 feet wide and 85 feet deep (including the yard). What Horwood shows as different houses might actually have been multiple rooms within the same house.

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Today on the site is a large office building. The Saint wine bar is within a few yards of the original site of the Crown, where the Cat and Salutation originally stood.