London’s Lost Pubs

By Sam Cullen
Publisher: White Owl
ISBN: 9781399038263

So what’s this book got to do with cartoons, then? Well, I’ll tell you.

The Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain was founded in 1960 by a bunch of Fleet Street’s doodlers. Over time, the pub they settled upon as a natural home was The Cartoonist, situated a stone’s throw behind Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. 

Sadly, The Cartoonist was demolished a decade ago (not long after a hasty removal of a grand collection of the club’s cartoons from its walls). For many, it was synonymous with the CCGB, where the monthly meetings took place, competitions were held to design that year’s sign, and even, on one occasion, where a bear turned up.

So it probably comes as no surprise that Sam Cullen selected The Cartoonist as the first featured watering hole in his new book London’s Lost Pubs.

The now late Pete Jacob kindly assisted Sam in understanding the club’s history with the pub and all that it entailed.

Over 200 pubs have been lost in the capital in a quarter of a century, and although not all are covered within the pages of this book, the best of the boozers are.

Listed borough-by-borough, and including an abundance of facts and trivia, the book reveals the intrinsic ties between the pubs and London’s history.

Copies are available directly from the publisher’s website as either hardback or ebook. To get your copy, click here.