Our Literary London Blog page

The roots of the Literary Pub Crawl lie in the Fitzroy Tavern. I was doing my Masters at the University of London and looking for a cheap pint.  My mate from Birmingham, filmmaker Andy Bloom, suggested I could get a cheaper pint at the Fitzroy, as the pub was run by the Sam Smiths Brewery and they were considerably cheaper than other pubs in the area.  He also told me about the Writers and Artists Bar at the pub, which certainly appealed.

So I was nursing my cheap pint downstairs and couldn't help but notice the pictures of writers and artists on the wall. Dylan Thomas, George Orwell, Augustus John.  It occurred to me that if they'd all been regulars, there must be some stories to tell.  So a few days (and cheap pints later) I'd done enough research to realise there certainly were some stories. Fascinating stories, I thought.  So I wrote the stories into a script, found some actors and the London Literary Pub Crawl was born!

The Fitzroy Tavern has been talking about closing for over a year.  We are part of the reason for this.  The pub gets so packed they need more room.  So they are closed for at least 8 months and they are looking to turn the first floor accommodation into public rooms.  One, I think, is going to be called The Dylan Thomas Room!

So we've moved the start of our show from the Fitzroy Tavern, just down the road, to The Wheatsheaf on Rathbone Place. We're so blessed with literary pubs in the area that it wont make any difference to the show - in fact we love it because The Wheatsheaf is where we've been presenting plays for the last year or so.  We were recently described by Arts Site Remotegoat as "the new bohemians of Fitzrovia and Soho."  I quite like that. I hope you'll come and be bohemian with us soon.