My first visit to a famous pub near Hampstead (in north London)
I HAVE BEEN PAST the Old Bull and Bush pub near Hampstead inummerable times during the past 70 years, but until today (1 June 2025), I had never entered it. Here is a little about the pub from my book “Beneath a Wide Sky: Hampstead and its Environs”:
“Made famous in an old music hall song Down at the Old Bull and Bush (by Andrew B Sterling and Henry von Tilzer), the Old Bull and Bush began life as a farmhouse that was built around 1645. The pub began in the early 18th century. The artist William Hogarth (1697-1754) visited it regularly. The artists Gainsborough and Reynolds frequented the pub with the actor/director Garrick. The present pub was built in the 1920s and is uninteresting architecturally. When I was a child, there was another pub next door to the Old Bull and Bush. This was the ‘Hare and Hounds’. I used to pass it and the two pubs on my way to school in Highgate (between 1965 and 1970). It was already present in the early 19th century. In 1940, during WW2 it was twice destroyed by aerial bombardment. And, according to Christopher Wade, it: “… existed for a time in five linked caravans…” before being rebuilt in 1968. The pub ceased operating in 2000 and has since been demolished. A modern brick apartment block now stands where people used to enjoy a casual pint.”
Well, today, we ate lunch at the pub. The dining room was comfortable, the service was good, but the food was unexceptional. Would I visit that establishment again? Maybe, but I still prefer other pubs in Hampstead.
PS My book is available from Amazon, e.g.:
