Finding Writing Inspiration at London Pubs

January 4th, 2013. I needed writing inspiration, as well as a break from the coffee shop chains of Costa, Caffe Nero, and Starbucks that I usually spend time at these days while imagining I’m going to my office to get some serious work done.

I’ve been reading a book entitled A Readers Guide to Writers London.  In that book, there is a section about the Wapping neighborhood and mention of the pub Prospect of Whitby…“London’s oldest surviving riverside pub…(it) first opened its doors in 1520 and has been frequented over the years by Pepys, Dickens and Thackeray.” (Author: Ian Cunningham, published in 2001)

What better place to get inspired than this?

It opens at noon.  Now that I’ve lived in London for almost one year, it seemed rather normal when I walked in the door one minute after opening time and there was already a group of 8 people ahead of me in the queue. ( or “line” as we call it in the US).

The Prospect of Whitby pub is at a great spot, on the north side of the river Thames. From a terrace outside, you can see just how much the river bends and curves, and look across to the south side of the river where old factories or warehouse once stood and now are mostly  expensive, river-view flat conversions.  In the distance are the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf, London’s financial district in the East.

There’s a warm small fireplace inside and dark walls that immediately make you feel comfortable and cosy.  A few signs that provide facts about the pub’s history. My favorite was the sign that read “Directly alongside deck is where a ship called the Prospect moored for many years.  Built and registered in Whitby, Yorkshire, she ferried coal to London from Newcastle.  The pub took the name when it was rebuilt in the 1770’s.”   That phrase doesn’t quite seem to go together. Rebuilt… in the 1770s?!  This city is old.  This is the first time in my life that I think I’m finally beginning to get excited about history, instead of just viewing certain stories as dull events of the past.

In this city’s history, hundreds of famous writers and poets have been born here and/or have lived here, including William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, John Keats, Virginia Woolf, Beatrix Potter and Oscar Wilde, among so many others! There are museums, theaters, buildings, literary walks and hundreds of pubs dedicated to sharing these writers’ stories, materials and lives…

I have no excuse. Writing inspiration should really come easy the next time that I need it.