Today we take our final look at famous London pubs. The Hand and Shears pub is a delightful example of an early nineteenth century alehouse. The pub has four bar areas, one snug is so small it can hold only about eight customers.
A 12th century alehouse stood here, in the precincts of St Bartholomew's Prior. In August 1133, the first cloth fair was held at Smith Field nearby. Tailors and drapers came from all over the country to ply their trade. By Tudor times the Cloth Fair had taken on an official role for Merchant Tailors, whose officers would check cloth with a yard stick. Offenders caught giving short measure, were brought to the alehouse and their case heard in a court upstairs. The guilty were put in stocks or whipped.
Eventually the alehouse was officially adopted by the Merchant Tailors of London and was allowed to display the guilds sign, the 'hand and shears'. The Lord Mayor opened the fair from the steps of the pub. The last one was held in 1855. Poet John Betjeman who lived nearby was a regular.
Reproduced by kind permission of Pubs.com
http://www.pubs.com
