Pontack's

1004 Pontack’s or Puntack’s, Pontack’s Head or Puntack’s Head Lombard Street-Abchurch Lane c1670–c1756. Documentation concerning Pontack’s is very inconsistent and untidy.

1004. Pontack's or Pontack's Head, Lombard Street on the site of Nos. 16–17; later on the east side of Abchurch Lane.
     Is variously mentioned as Pontac's, Pontaq's, Pontacq's, Puntack's, and Puntack's Head; although found listed as a coffee-house, there is nothing in contemporary writing to suggest it ever was. The house is usually referred to simply by name, described as a 'celebrated French eating-house'; 'a famous dining-place'; 'a tavern',' 'a noted ordinary for the better sort' and suchlike, without any indication of its location. No precise record of the date of its establishment comes to light.

1666

Mr. Hilton Price in 'The Signs of Old Lombard Street' places M. Pontack, vintner, at the site of No. 17, as early as 1666;

1671–89

but some few years must be allowed for rebuilding after the Fire. Rogers suggests that Pontacq succeeded Gray Laud or Lord, vintner, about 1683, and Besant dates it from 1689. 'Sprightly Puntack' is mentioned in a pamphlet, 1671, called 'The Search after Claret....'

1683

It is generally written that Pontack 'came to London to establish a famous eating-house, and set up his father's head as a sign'. The earliest contemporary mention is credited to John Evelyn who relates in his Diary, 13 July 1683: 'I had this day much discourse with Monseiur Pontaq, son to the ... President of Bordeaux. This gentleman was owner of that excellent vignoble of Pontaq and O'Brien, from whence come the choicest of our Bordeaux wines.... He spake all languages, was very rich, had a handsome person, and was well-bred, about fortyfive years of age.... ' Pontaq does not appear in the 1682 Watch Book, nor in the registers of St. Mary Woolnoth, but the name of Gray Lord, vintner, does.
     Pontack's first occupied whole or part of the site later known as Nos. 16 and 17 Lombard-street, prior to Edward Lloyd Coffeeman removing there in 1691. Mr. Hilton Price throws some light on Pontack's whilst in Lombard-street: 'Through the kindness of Mr. Robarts, who permitted me to examine the title deeds, and therein ascertain that previously to this house being Lloyd's it was called PUNTACK'S HEAD. The back part of the premises originally belonged to Vyner, and afterwards to the Post Office, of which later it was purchased by the bankers.... Although spelt Puntack in the deeds, we find by contemporary literature, that the house was kept by a Monseiur Pontack, or Pontac, a Frenchman, son of the President of Bordeaux... .' (London Bankers, 1890, p. 143.)

 

[See Pontack's, Abchurch Lane.]