Locket's Tavern

[Locket's Ordinary.] Nigh unto this [Buckingham] Court is Locket's Ordinary, a House of Entertainment, much frequented by Gentry.

Locket's, a famous ordinary, which stood on the site of Drummond's Banking house, at Charing Cross, and was so called from Adam Locket, the landlord. There is an original Royal Sign-Manual Warrant of James II.'s "for paying the sum of £36 'to Adam Lockett, for providing Diet for the officers of the Horse Guards that are in waiting,'" attached to which is a receipt for the money signed "Adam Lockett." Locket was dead in 1688. An Edward Locket inhabited the same house till 1702.¹

This is to give notice that Ed. Lockett at Charing Cross hath taken the Bowling-green House on Putney Heath, where all gentlemen may be entertained.—London Gazette for 1693, No. 2965.

1694.—Rec^d. of Fines for persons not serving overseers of the Poor of Mr. Edward Locket of Charing Cross, Cooke, £12.—Overseers' Accounts of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields.

The fate of things lies always in the dark,
What Cavalier would know St. James's Park?
For Locket's stands where gardens once did spring,
And wild-ducks quack where grasshoppers did sing.
Dr. King, The Art of Cookery, 1709.

In another par Dr. King speaks of

Locket, by many labours feeble grown,
Up from the kitchen called his eldest son.

Nigh unto this Court [Buckingham Court, Spring Gardens] is Locket's Ordinary, a house of entertainment much frequented by gentry.—Strype, ed. 1720, B. vi. p. 77.

Come, at a crown a head ourselves we'll treat.
Champagne our liquor, and ragouts our meat;
Then hand in hand we'll go to court, dear cuz,
To visit Bishop Martin and King Buz.
With evening wheels we'll drive about the Park,
Finish at Locket's, and reel home i' th' dark.
Prior and Montagu, The Hind and Panther Transvers'd.

I'll answer you in a couple of brimmers of claret at Locket's, at dinner, where I have bespoken an admirable good one for you.—Shadwell, The Scowrers, 4to, 1691.

Think on the Turbot and the Calvert Salmon at Locket's.&this mdash;Ibid..

What! thou art as shy of my kindness as a Lombard Street Alderman of a courtier's civility at Locket's.—Wycherley, The Country Wife, 4to, 1675.

Fashion. Shall you be back at dinner?
Lord Foppington. As Gad shall judge me I can't tell; for 'tis passable I may dine with some of our House at Locket's.²—Vanbrugh, The Relapse, 4to, 1697.

At Locket's, Brown's, and at Pontack's enquire
What modish kickshaws the nice beaux desire,
What fam'd ragouts, what new invented sallat,
Has best pretensions to regale the palate.
Mrs. Centlivre, Prologeu to Love's Contrivance, 1703.

Lord Foppington. From thence [the Park] I go to dinner at Lacket's, where you are so nicely and delicately served, that, stap my vitals! they shall compose you a dish no bigger than a saucer, shall come to fifty shillings. Between eating my dinner (and washing my mauth, ladies) I spend my time till I go to the play.—Vanbrugh, The Relapse.
Lady Wishfort. Ods my life. 111 have him murdered. I'll have him poisoned. Where does he eat? I'll marry a drawer to have him poisoned in his wine. I'll send for Robin from Locket's—immediately.—Congreve, The Way of the World, 4to, 1700.

We as naturally went from Mann's Coffee House to the Parade, as a Coachman drives from Locket's to the Playhouse.—Tom Brown.

To coffee some retreat to save their pockets,
Others, more generous damn the play at Lockets:
But there, I hope, the Author's fears are vain,
Malice ne'er spoke in generous champain.
Farquhar, Epil. to Constant Couple/cite>, 4to, 1700.

Jevon, the actor and dramatist, dedicates his Devil of a Wife (4to, 1686) to his friends frequenting Locket's ordinary. [See Long's.] The reputation of the house survived the reign of Anne, but expired early in the reign of her successor.

¹ Rate-books of St. Martin's.

10087 Locket’s or Lockett’s “by Charing Cross” 1668–c1722.

Northumberland Coffee House opposite Northumberland House, Charing Cross.

1780s

An earlier house, Windsor's Coffee-house, had the same address in 1709, but I find nothing to connect the two houses. Mr. Macmichael in 'Charing Cross' mentions that 'one of Sheridan's favourite haunts was the Northumberland Coffee-house, which occupied approxi- mately the site of what was afterwards Wyld's well known map shop ...'

1791–92

Timbs and other writers mention that old Mr. Mathews, or Matthews, the bookseller of the Strand, used to relate that he remembered Napoleon Bonaparte residing in London for 5 weeks in 1791–92, in lodgings in George Street, one of the streets of York buildings, and that he occasionally took his cup of chocolate at the Northumberland Coffee-house, opposite Northumberland House.
     Leigh Hunt (1784–1859) the English essayist and poet, inclined to identify Locket's, or Locket's Ordinary, a house of entertainment in the reign of Queen Anne, with the Northumberland Coffee House; and according to Thornbury's 'Old & New London' (1897) 'some- where near stood Drummond's the Banking-house'.

1805–33

The Northumberland Coffee House Charing Cross, is listed in the London directories from 1805 to 1833. The Proprietor in 1809 is T. Sherwin; in 1813 given as James Sherwin; in 1822–24 J. & J. Irish, and in 1826-27 as James & Josh. Irish.
     The Northumberland Arms, Northumberland Street, Strand, is known in 1827 in use for masonic lodge meetings; but apparently had no connexion.
     See Will's Northumberland Coffee House, Strand. No. 2026.