The Coach and Horses

Jeffrey Bernard wrote his Spectator “Low Life” column from a barstool here for decades. When he didn't show up, the magazine ran the headline “Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell” — which became the title of the 1989 West End play starring Peter O'Toole, performed on a set that recreated this pub's interior. Private Eye held its fortnightly lunches upstairs for forty years, with Richard Ingrams, William Rushton, and Peter Cook in attendance. Norman Balon ran the place from 1943 until 2006, earned the title “London's Rudest Landlord,” and wrote a memoir called You're Barred, You Bastards. Grade II listed and still on Greek Street, thirty seconds from the French House. The current incarnation bills itself as London's first vegetarian pub.