ROBERTS LONDON Bye LOCATION: Ely Place (The last privately
owned street in London) OK guys welcome back to London its Friday
Friday afternoon and I've just finished work for the day well Its kind of the wrong way
of looking at it I'am self employed I own a business so I never actually finish work
there is always something to do but I've finished taking care of my last piece of business here
in Hatton Garden for the day when I say Hatton Garden for those that don't know I work in
the jewellery trade and when we refer to Hatton Garden we kind of mean the not just the street
itself which is out here but the whole area and yeah I thought I would head to the pub
one of London's hidden gems and take you guys with me share it with you there is an interesting
church just here you can rent out the crypt I've been to events in the crypt parties and
stuff its pretty cool I'll show you that quickly this Ely place being a private and gated dead
end street with few people passing through and St Etheldreda's church being set back
a little so difficult to see from the outside very few people probably see it or even know
its here the church was once the private chapel of the Bishop of Ely and today is believed
to be the only surviving building in London from the reign of King Edward the first as
you can see from the outside of Ely Place you would never know it was there OK just
here on the right is Ely Court which is a secretive looking alleyway or passage way
that runs between here Ely Place and Hatton Garden and is home to a pub this I think was
apparently put in to stop people riding there horses through I'll show you the pub I walk
straight past most people won't come from that entrance so I'll show you the entrance
from the Hatton Garden end and then we will go to the pub the pub down here is hard to
find even for those looking for a pub and it is a great place to hide for locals who
don't wish to be found especially in a local pub when they should be doing something more
productive like working that is the pub there I'll show you the street entrance if your
coming here from Hatton Garden itself because if the door is shut it is even harder to find
and there is one tiny sign this is Hatton Garden home to London's Jewellery industry
jewellery trade I should say apart from that and that sign there the entrance is pretty
non descriptive and most people miss it lets go and get a beer The Mitre pub down here
in Ely Court just off Hatton Garden or Ye Old Mitre to give it its full title is one
of London's truly historic pubs OK welcome to the Mitre the Mitre serve some
great beers and classic British pub food the menu board is on the wall a choice of sandwiches
including cheese and ham cheese and tomato cheese and pickle and cheese and onion they
have hot food you can have a sausage a sausage sandwich a sausage roll they have hot pies
a choice of three and pork pies scotch eggs and gala pie which is a pork pie with an egg
in it and also pork scratching the oldest pub in town the oldest pub in London is a
disputed list especially disputed in pubs and especially over a few beers and it is
more a list of short stories and tall tales rather than indisputable facts and whenever
someone compiles such a list Ye Old Mitre gets a notable mention and the story gets
told along with the story of the hand full of other very old pubs here in London OK pint
of London Pride and a home made sausage roll a choice of ketchup and mustard I've gone
for just mustard English mustard there is two bars here you have the front bar I just
went in believe it or not its a tiny building the front bar then the lounge bar and just
inside the door here there is loads of snugs inside as well its a super cosy little pub
inside the door of the lounge bar there is stairs just here which lead upstairs and there
is an upper room if you get a little cold out side there is a court yard here and obviously
beer barrels out in the alleyway the passage way leading from Hatton Garden to Ely Place
and yeah out door toilet there not completely out doors but yeah out doors around there
lets try the beer Friday Pint of London Pride lets try the sausage roll if your American
English mustard is a lot more powerful than yours that's delicious super flaky pastry
good tasty pork maybe some sage onion sausage OK I'am going to enjoy my sausage roll and
my beer and then I'll head out on to Hatton Garden and give you a quick not so much tour
but I'll give you a quick look at Hatton Garden and then maybe we will head over to the edge
of the city of London and I'll show you where the city starts and I think this is Camden
well the whole borough is but where the borough of Camden and the city of London starts so
see you guys in a moment The Mitre is said to have been the site of a pub since 1546
bulldozed to be rebuilt in the 1770's expanded in the 1780's and remodelled internally in
the 1930's now there are similar stories for many of London's oldest and older pubs stories
of remodelling rebuilding even changes of use so finding out which is the oldest is
tricky but the Mitre is one of London's more historic pubs and which ever date you choose
people have been coming here for a drink since the 1540's to this very building since the
1770's and visitors from the 1930's would still recognise it today OK i would definitely
recommend a trip to the Mitre if your in town it is a historic pub it has a great selection
of beers obviously a fully stocked bar too if you don't drink beer it has an amazing
selection of traditional British bar snacks been so hidden it has a fantastic atmosphere
you put all that together and it gives it a phenomenal charm OK a quick beer at the
mitre its amazing how many people pop in and out of there for a quick beer that is an important
thing to mention open Monday to Friday closed at the weekends traditionally it is a bit
like a ghost town around here at weekends that is changing the whole area kind of changing
but what I want to do this is Hatton Garden I'll take a quick walk around the corner and
I'll show you where the City of London begins yeah it is just around the bend it is not
clearly sign posted but you can see from the the lion symbols of the City of London where
it starts we are about to walk from the London Borough of Camden into the City of London
and all that changes is the street furniture here that bollard is a city design and not
Camden originally Romans in the second or third century encircled the City with a wall
to defend it ultimately it remained until the 1760's later functioning to regulate trade,
taxes and tolls within the city and had seven gates most of the wall and gates are gone
the main entrances are marked today with dragon boundary markers almost symbolic as gateways
to the city dragons holding a shield they are often mistakenly refereed to as griffins
both now and historically and so called experts all write that they don't understand why the
confusion exists because its even been done in official literature over the centuries
but here it is clear to see why when you walk from Camden into the city there are no dragon
markers they are down by Smithfield and up by Chancery Lane and the Holborn viaduct looks
like a bridge to the city it is a bridge into the city OK that site down there is was Smithfield
meat markets Smithfield market you will see these one way or another you will see dragons
sometimes lions but you can see the viaduct there behind me just so your in no doubt your
heading into the city this is one of the actual city of London boundary markers here outside
Smithfield market and they are heraldic style dragons holding a shield not lions or griffins
as people often think but it is easy to see why you would think that the city markers
can be griffins when your up on the viaduct because the winged lions the whole viaduct
looks like a gateway to the city it is decorated with an incredible amount of heraldic symbolic
imagery you can see there are the dragons on the lampposts the dragons on the exterior
and the crest of city of London in the iron work but yeah these winged lions up here look
like they are almost protecting a gateway to the city with there paws on the globes
there but they are not your already in the city by the time your on the viaduct some
sort of proposal there for development of this Holborn Viaduct I would imagine it is
already a listed the problem is it already is a listed structure I would imagine but
yeah you can see from there on in your in the city of London carry on going you will
get to Goldsmiths hall and Marry Le bow church where the bells yeah the bells of bow bells
the bells of bow bells are so in theory if your born within ringing distance of them
your a cockney but with noise pollution the distance that they can be heard is diminishing
all the time and I don't think there is a maternity ward any longer within ear shot
of them so cockneys are a diminishing bred although there are dragons on all the lampposts
up here and on the exterior of the viaduct the predominant statues are the winged lions
they are still not griffins but most people didn't go to school at Hogwarts so the anatomy
of mythical beasts for most people is not perfect the difference between griffins and
winged lions may not be clear and many would probably call the winged lions griffins OK
I'am going to head back to the station and head home thanks for watching and until next
time Toodles!
anyway the key point was although the Holborn viaduct is a bridge into the City it looks
like it could be a city boundary maker it is not there are dragon boundary markers but
they are a couple of hundred meters further along this street if you want to see that
it features in other videos I think it is the I think it features in the Simpsons tavern
video I think check that out but I'll link it at the end I'am pretty sure you can see
the church Bow Church in that video Toodles!