Rummer Tavern

Rummer Tavern (The). A famous tavern, two doors from Locket's, between Whitehall and Charing Cross, removed to the waterside of Charing Cross in 1710, and burnt down November 7, 1750. No traces exist. It was kept in Charles II.'s reign by Samuel Prior, uncle of Matthew Prior, the poet. The Prior family ceased to be connected with it in 1702.

My uncle, rest his soul! when living,
Might have contriv'd me ways of thriving:
Taught me with cider to replenish
My vats, or ebbing tide of Rhenish.
So when for hock I drew prickt white-wine,
Swear't had the flavour, and was right wine.
Prior to Fleetwood Shepheard.

There having been a false and scandalous report that Samuel Pryor, vintner at the Rummer, near Charing Cross, was accused of exchanging money for his own advantage, with such as clip and deface his Majesty's coin, and that the said Pryor had given bail to answer the same. This report being false in every part of it, if any person who shall give notice to the said Pryor, who have been the fomenters or dispersers of this malicious report, so as a legal prosecution may be made against them, the said Pryor will forthwith give 10 guineas as a reward.—London Gazette, May 31 to June 4, 1688.

Col. Standard. If you are my friend meet me this evening at the Rummer.—Farquhar, The Inconstant Couple, Act i. Sc. I.

And again

Col. Then meet me in half an hour hence at the Rummer.—Ibid., Act. iv. Sc. 3.

Here Jack Sheppard committed his first robbery by stealing two silver spoons. The Rummer is introduced by Hogarth into his picture of "Night." There were Rummer Taverns in Henrietta Street,¹ Covent Garden, and Queen Street, Cheapside; also a Swan and Rummer in Finch Lane, and a Rummer and Horse-shoe in Drury Lane.

---

¹ Cockburn's Letters, vol. ii. p. 225.

Rummer Tavern, Charing Cross.

1681–85

Cunningham gives the locality of this house as 'two doors from Locket's, between Whitehall and Charing Cross.' Timbs remarks that the house was kept in the reign of Charles II, by Samuel Prior, uncle of Matthew Prior, and the L.C.C. Survey, Vol. XVI, dates Samuel Prior's removal from the Rhenish winehouse in Cannon Row as 1681.

1712–36

The L.C.C. Survey refers to the Rummer Eating House in deeds dated 1712 and 1736, but expresses some doubt whether this is the same house as Prior's.

1723–32

The Rummer Charing Cross is listed in use for masonic meetings in 1723, 1725, and again in 1732. (Lane's Masonic Records.)

1742

'Daily Advertiser' 15 Feb. 1742: To be seen at the Rummer Charing Cross the celebrated luminous amphitheatre constructed of silver polished steel and cut glass, exhibiting at one view upwards of 200 fountains.
     See Rhenish Wine House, No. 1899.

1428. Turk's Head, Charing Cross. East side on the site of the later known No. 16.

According to the L.C.C. Survey, Vol. XVI, this house was formerly The Rummer Tavern—one of the several Rummers in the neighbourhood dating from 1683—and in the 1730s when occupied by Richard Haddock, was commonly called the Turk's Head.

1731

In Haddock's will dated 7 May, 1731 (proved 5 Oct. 1748) he describes himself as 'Master of the Turk's Head Bagnio near Charing Cross'. Elsewhere, Haddock's is mentioned in 1731 as The New Bagnio.

1767

In 1767, the property changed hands and is described as 'the messuage formerly of Richard Haddock, afterwards of Elizabeth Haddock and now or late in the Tenure ... of Sophia Lenoy ... formerly called the Turk's Head, but now used as ... a Bagnio'. (L.C.C. Survey, Vol. XVI.)

1780

Mr. Macmichael in 'Charing Cross' refers to the Turk's Head as a tavern 'next door to what in 1785 was No. 17 Charing Cross' and he quotes the 'London Gazette', 12 Aug. 1780, in referring to the house as the Turk's Head Coffee House. The L.C.C. Survey says 'it was known as The Royal Bagnio in 1789'.
     It seems therefore that No. 16 housed a tavern, a bagnio, a coffee-house, and again a bagnio in 1789 when the title was changed.

1898 Rummer Tavern Charing Cross 1681–88. Rummer Eating-house 1712–36.
         Rummer Tavern “by the water side of Charing Cross” 1710.
         Rummer Tavern Charing Cross 1703–34, later Turks Head see No. 17339
         Rummer Tavern Charing Cross 1738–1822, formerly Prince William.

17339 RUMMER TAVERN at or near Charing Cross. At least six Rummer signs are known here and one in Fleet street between 1681 and the 1820s. Documentation is untidy and far from perfect. See No. 1898.

[Rummer Tavern]. In 1681 the name of "Samuel Pryer" occurs in respect of a portion of the [Kirke] house. Samuel Prior was the uncle of Matthew Prior, poet and diplomatist, and the former's tavern in Charing Cross has been identified both as The Rummer and as the house where young Matthew was taken in to assist and wait on the customers.ⁿ²¹ The latter identification is very doubtful. Samuel Prior had formerly kept the Rhenish Wine House in Cannon Row, where Matthew assisted him, and whence he was sent back to Westminster School by the Earl of Dorset. As Samuel Prior did not remove to Charing Cross until Matthew was 17, it must have been the Cannon Row establishment that is referred to. As regards the identity of the Charing Cross house with The Rummer, however, it seems quite likely that at some time later the house, or a part of it, was The Rummer Eating House. The deed of 1712, which has previously been mentioned, concerning inter alia certain houses on the site of the timber yard, mentions a house in the occupation of Thomas Corbett "adjoining to a Messuage called the Rummer Eating house on the North," and in 1736 the same house is again referred toⁿ²² as "formerly in the Tenure ... of Thomas Corbett ... abutting ... North on a Messuage ... now in the Tenure of ... Thomas Patterson." Corbett's house was the northernmost of those on the timber yard frontage, and Patterson is known to have been a Kirke tenant (see below). The Rummer Eating House must therefore have been situated in the southern portion of the Kirke property, and may well have been identical with the house of Prior.ⁿ²³ In that case it must have changed its character since Prior's time, for the latter's establishment was a tavern, not an eating house.ⁿ²⁴

The last ratebook giving Samuel Prior's name is that for 1695. During the whole of this period the Kirke family had retained possession of the house. On 15th August, 1723, Charles James Kirke and Mary his mother mortgagedⁿ²⁵ to Erasmus Lewis "all those three Severall Messuages ... scituate ... at or near Chearing Cross ... heretofore One Messuage built by George Kirke, Esquire, Deceased, and formerly in the Tenure ... of the Right Honourable the Earle of Mulgrave, afterwards in the Severall Tenures ... of John Ferrers and Samuell Prior, since that in the possession of Nathaniell Rosewell, and late in the Occupation of Francis Gostridge, Vintner."ⁿ²⁶

By her will dated 25th July, 1753, Mary Kirke bequeathed all her freehold property at Charing Cross, "then in the Possession of herself and Mr. Thomas Paterson," to John Lambert and Elizabeth Cox "her upper Servant, for the Purposes therein mentioned." ⁿ²⁷ The remaining house of the three was empty.

On 7th January, 1757, John Lambert and Elizabeth Cox sold the property, described as three messuages late in the tenure of "Mary Kirke, Thomas Paterson and—" to Francis Watkins.ⁿ²⁸ In the list prepared by the Westminster Bridge Commissioners' surveyor in 1756 (see appendix) two of the houses are described as "old brick houses," one let to John Harris (Paterson's successor) and the other "next Spring Garden," unlet. Mary Kirke's house was not included in the list.

Thomas Williams, "Dealer in China," succeeded John Harris, "landskip painter," in 1757, and in the former's appealⁿ²⁹ to the commissioners for favourable consideration he refers to the house as "commonly called Oliver Cromwell's House." In the plan reproduced in Plate 80, "Cromwell's Palace" is shown in Stanhope Court, further north. The only other reference to the place that has been found is the water-colour drawing reproduced on p. 86ⁿ³⁰ which obviously shows the Spring Gardens side of the building, but contains nothing to identify it specially with either Kirke House or Stanhope House. No evidence has been found to connect Cromwell with either house.

On the widening of the street in 1758 the front house was pulled down, and an irregularly shaped piece of ground about 34 feet in depth was thrown into the road.

---

^n21. "George his [Matthew's] father, after his wife's death, I suppose, moved to London, encouraged by his brother Arthur [sic] who had succeeded in the world and kept the Rummer Tavern by Charing Cross, the great resort of wits in the latter end of King Charles the Second's reign and in my remembrance; who took in his nephew Matthew to wait in the tavern, from which time you know his history." (Extract from letter from Conyers Place giving an account of Matthew's parentage, derived from his father's brother's son, Christopher Prior.—Hist. MSS. Commission, Duke of Portland's MSS., Vol. VI, p. 33.)

^n22. Indenture, dated 21st January, 1735–6, between Charles Edwin and Humphrey Edwin. (Middx. Register, 1736, III, 290.)

^n23. The ratebook evidence about 1705 is difficult to interpret, and it has not been found possible to confirm the above statement from that source.

^n24. It must also be remembered that there is a difficulty in identifying Prior's house in 1683 with The Rummer at all, since the name of the proprietor of the latter is said to be Lawrence.

^n25. Middx. Register, 1723, IV, 208.

^n26. The ratebooks for 1696–9 show Nathaniel "Roswell" and those for 1700–2 Francis "Gostrig" at the house.

^n27. Middx. Register, 1755, I, 490.

^n28. Ibid., 1757, I, 366.

^n29. See P.R.O., Works, 6/35, pp. 83–4. Williams stated that the premises "are not only extremely well situated for Your Petitioner's Business, but have a large and commodious Warehouse and Sale Room therein, which Your Petitioner hath been at a great Expence in fitting up for the Sale of his China and other Goods."

^n30. In the Crace Collection at the British Museum is a print practically identical with the water-colour drawing. Whether the print was engraved from the water-colour, or the latter copied from the print, has not been ascertained.

Rummer Tavern.

On friday a lodge of the antient and honourable Society of free and accepted Masons was constituted at Mr. Bodley's at the Rummer tavern, Charing-cross, (in the absence of the R. Hon. the L. Visc. Montacute, Grand Master) by Tho. Batson, Esq; Dep. Grand Master, the rest of the Grand Officers, Secretary, &c. attending. DP.
—Grub Street Journal 138, August 24, 1732

 

Yesterday died Mr. Finch, Master of the Rummer Tavern, Charing Cross.
—Daily Gazetteer 1020, October 10, 1738

 

For several Days past some of the Royal Family, and abundance of the Nobility and Gentry, have resorted to the Rummer Tavern at Charing-Cross, to see the wonderful Gigantick Milk-white Ox, and the surprising Lilliputian or Dwarf Cow, which have given such general Satisfaction, as to be allow'd the greatest Opposites of Nature that have ever been seen in these Dominions. They will continue to be shewn every Day this Week, and no longer, from Eight in the Morning till Eight at Night.
—Daily Advertiser 3769, February 16, 1743

 

At the Rummer-Tavern, Charing-Cross, For the Satisfaction of the Curious, to be seen by One or more without Loss of Time, from Ten in the Morning 'till Eight at Night, the present Wonder of the World,
The Famous AFRICAN, Who was viewed in the Year 1740 in London by Persons of the highest Distinction, and is the just Admiration of all the Learned and Curious of both Sexes.
     For a particular Description of the Parts, which distinguish the Sexes,
we refer to the short Account, in Latin, following.

"Scroti quippe vice funguntur Vulvæ Labia, Testiculos, binos largos & mobiles involventia. Clitoridis loco Penis Virilis ad quatuor minimum prominet digitos, ubi (quod saepius fit) erigitur imperforatus quidem, sed ex Corporibus cavernosis, Glande Urethra, Præputio & Frænulo vere conflatus. Adsunt præterea, plane ac in Mulieribus, Meatus urinarius & Vagina satis ampla, huc usque tamen nulla huic ANDROGYNÆ effluxerunt Catamœnia."

     N.B. Since the year 1740, the Parts are wonderfully enlarged, and the Left Testicle fell down into its seperate Scrotum, almost as low, and large as the other.
     After so many strict Examinations by the greatest Physicians and Surgeons in the three Kingdoms, the Generality agree there is no Uterus.
     William Cheselden, Esq; Surgeon to her late Majesty, having seen this Subject, and caused an exact Draught to be made of the Parts, has been pleased to give an engraved Figure thereof, in the new Edition of his Anatomy, Page 314, after describing the Parts, he pronounces it to be neither Sex perfect, but a wonderful Mixture of both.
A Convenient Back-way from Spring-Garden.      Our Stay here being but a Fortnight, we beg the Favour of the Curious to embrace this Opportunity, we being obliged to go to Bath, and some other Parts in the West, where it never was shewn.
— London Daily Post and General Advertiser 2770, September 8, 1743

 

At the Rummer-Tavern, Charing-Cross, For the Satisfaction of the Curious, to be seen by One or more without Loss of Time, from Ten in the Morning 'till Eight at Night, the present Wonder of the World,
The Famous AFRICAN, Who was viewed in the Year 1740 in London by Persons of the highest Distinction, who all allow that its Equal stands not upon Record, nor as yet has been known to have appeared in the World.
"Fœmina, Mas. Maurus, Mundi, Mirabile Monstrum.'      For a particular Description of the Parts, which distinguish the Sexes,
we refer to the short Account, in Latin, following.

"Scroti quippe vice funguntur Vulvæ Labia, Testiculos, binos largos & mobiles involventia. Clitoridis loco Penis Virilis ad quatuor minimum prominet digitos, ubi (quod saepius fit) erigitur imperforatus quidem, sed ex Corporibus cavernosis, Glande Urethra, Præputio & Frænulo vere conflatus. Adsunt præterea, plane ac in Mulieribus, Meatus urinarius & Vagina satis ampla, huc usque tamen nulla huic ANDROGYNÆ effluxerunt Catamœnia."

     N.B. Since the year 1740, the Parts are wonderfully enlarged, and the Left Testicle fell down into its seperate Scrotum, almost as low, and large as the other.
     When we were last in Town in the Year 1740, we were honoured by Numbers of Ladies of undoubted and unquestionable Reputation; there is now a convenient and private Passage from Spring-Garden to the Room, and the Ladies will be attended by a prudent Person of their own Sex, with the utmost Decency, and good Lights in the Evenings; Attendance given Abroad if desired.
— London Daily Post and General Advertiser 2775, September 14, 1743

 

We hear, that at the Rummer Tavern, Charing Cross, there has been vast Numbers to see the Famous African, mostly Physicians and Surgeons, all greatly approving of the surprizing Alteration in this wondeful Phaenomenon since the Year 1740, and that this is a quite different Subject from any treated of by Doctor Parsons, in his Treatise of Hermaphrodites, will plainly appear to any Surgeon, upon his Examination of it—As the Company are at present but thin in that Part of the Town, they are now moved opposite to the Bell, a little within the Old Baily from Ludgate-hill, the first Front Floor.
— London Daily Post and General Advertiser 2795, October 7, 1743

 

The curious Beast from the East-Indies, which has given general Satisfaction to all that have seen him, will be shewn for a short Time at the Rummer Tavern, Charing-Cross: This Creature is a Resemblance of several Species, such as the Deer, Bull, and Goat Kind, and is very remarkable for a long flat Tail: He is twelve Hands High.
—Daily Advertiser 4466, May 9, 1745

 

On Wednesday last, about Eleven o'Clock, a Fire broke out in the House of Mr. Roque, a Draftsman and Printseller, next Door to the Rummer-Tavern, Charing-Corss, which burnt with such great Violence, and, in a short Time, entirely consumed that House, together with the Rummer, Mr. Stephen Quillet's, a Goldsmith, and Mr. Williams's, a Haberdasher, besides damaging several others. Several of the Houses being of Wood, it burnt so fiercely, that some of the Sufferers scarce sav'd their Wearing Apparel.
—London Evening Post 1020, November 8, 1750