London Tavern: Compare History, Locations and Owners

Searching for “London Tavern” can point you in two very different directions: a grand 18th-century meeting hall on Bishopsgate that helped found the RNLI, and a set of separate pubs and hotel-pubs that still carry the name today. The historic City of London Tavern opened in September 1768, according to COVE Collective, and the name has since appeared in Richmond, Kilburn, and Ringwood. This article separates the verified history from the search noise and tells you which “London Tavern” is which.

Last checked: 2026-07-31

Historic London Tavern: 18th-19th century meeting place in London · London Tavern Hotel (Richmond): Century-old pub & hotel, corner of Lennox St & Richmond Terrace · North London Tavern (Kilburn): English pub in Kilburn district, rated on Tripadvisor · London Tavern (Ringwood): Pub in New Forest, Ringwood, BH24 (UK)

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Key facts: the Bishopsgate London Tavern

Which London Tavern do you mean? A four-way comparison

The name “London Tavern” is not one venue with branches. The table below separates the four entries most relevant to the search context: the historic Bishopsgate meeting hall, the Richmond hotel-pub in Australia, the North London Tavern in Kilburn, and the London Tavern in Ringwood.

The bottom line: the comparison table separates four venues under one name. The historic Bishopsgate building matters for history; the Richmond hotel-pub matters for current stays and meals.

Who is the owner of the London Tavern?

The shortest answer is that there is no single owner. The historic London Tavern had a recorded proprietor, Charles Bleaden, by 1828, according to Wikipedia’s history of the tavern. The original building was also a tontine-financed venture, meaning a group of investors shared the cost and the benefit, as documented by Pascal Bonenfant’s history of the site.

The modern Richmond venue is different. The editorial research notes for this article name Bill Perry as the owner of the London Tavern Hotel in Richmond; that ownership detail came from the search-input material, not from an independently reviewed land-title record. No ownership was identified in the reviewed sources for the Kilburn or Ringwood pubs.

Bill Perry and the London Tavern Hotel in Richmond

The Richmond hotel-pub occupies the corner of Lennox Street and Richmond Terrace. According to the editorial research notes, it operates as a bar, dining room, functions venue and takeaway outlet, and is also home to Donna’s Coffee Richmond. Because no official website or directory listing was part of the source set, treat the Perry ownership detail as a research clue rather than a verified corporate record.

Ownership of the historic London Tavern

Charles Bleaden’s 1828 proprietorship is the most concrete owner-level fact in the verified record. The tavern was not a single-family pub in the modern sense; its large assembly rooms and tontine financing put it closer to a purpose-built events venue.

What this means: ownership questions about “the London Tavern” only make sense once you choose a venue. The historical ownership trail ends with Charles Bleaden; the Richmond trail begins with Bill Perry; the other venues have no verified owner in the sources reviewed.

Where was the original London Tavern located?

The address given by reference sources is 1–3 Bishopsgate, in the City of London, near the lower end of Bishopsgate close to Cornhill. The street was already a coaching-inn route into the City, according to COVE Collective’s note on the former site.

Before the 1765 fire, the same site held the White Lion Tavern. A published account of the fire describes it starting in a peruke-maker’s shop opposite the tavern and spreading across the street in a high wind, destroying both the White Lion and the Black Lion (On Books, Streets & Migrant Footprints). The rebuilt London Tavern opened in September 1768 on the former White Lion site.

The original London Tavern’s address in London

Reference editions record approximate coordinates of 51.5137° N, 0.0843° W, placing the site at the bottom end of Bishopsgate close to Cornhill. The coordinates come from a low-tier reference mirror, so treat the figure as directional rather than survey-grade.

How it became a meeting place

The rebuilt building was more than a pub. London Guided Walks describes the City of London Tavern as “the grandest tavern in all Europe,” a phrase drawn from 19th-century-style descriptions of its Corinthian columns, painted ceilings, ornate plasterwork and elevated galleries (London Guided Walks). An art print titled “The City of London Tavern, Bishopsgate Street” is held in the collections of the Yale Center for British Art, evidence of the building’s visual prominence.

The implication: the original London Tavern was a landmark of Bishopsgate’s coaching-inn quarter, not a hidden corner pub. Its location, scale, and financing all pointed toward civic gathering, which is why so many consequential meetings happened there.

What makes London Tavern Richmond special?

The London Tavern Hotel in Richmond sits on the corner of Lennox Street and Richmond Terrace. The editorial research notes describe it as a century-old pub and hotel in a well-known Richmond landmark, with bar, dining, functions and takeaway services.

A century-old neighbourhood pub in an iconic Richmond landmark

Unlike the lost Bishopsgate venue, the Richmond hotel-pub is still in operation. Its position on a street corner in Richmond gives it the feel of a traditional local, while the hotel component makes it relevant to travellers as well as regulars.

Bar, dining, functions, and takeaway services

According to the same research notes, the venue is also home to Donna’s Coffee Richmond, which gives the pub a daytime café identity alongside its evening bar trade. The combination of pub, hotel, functions space and coffee counter explains why “London Tavern Hotel” appears as a search phrase: it is a multi-use venue, not just a drinking pub.

The pattern: the Richmond venue keeps the old name, but its business model is thoroughly modern — a neighbourhood pub that also sells stays, event space, takeaways and coffee. It may be the most likely destination for a traveller searching “London Tavern” today.

What is the oldest London tavern?

Not the London Tavern. Bishopsgate had inns long before 1768. Spitalfields Life traces the White Hart in Bishopsgate to a documented history that may go back to around 1246 (Spitalfields Life). Bishopsgate also survived the Great Fire of London, which allowed its medieval and early-modern tavern culture to continue, notes The Diary of Samuel Pepys encyclopedia.

The oldest historic pub in London

The “oldest pub” question is a category problem rather than a simple date. The White Hart’s 1246 claim is a documented history “possibly dating back” to that year, as the source puts it, so it is older than the London Tavern by several centuries. The London Tavern’s significance was never age; it was the assembly room that let 400 people meet at once.

How the historic London Tavern compares

The 1768 opening made the London Tavern a late arrival in Bishopsgate’s inn tradition. Its neoclassical hall and tontine financing made it different in kind from the coaching inns around it.

What to watch: if you are searching “oldest London pub,” keep the White Hart on your list; if you are searching “London Tavern,” you are looking for a specific civic venue that operated from 1768 until the 1870s.

Which pub does Ed Sheeran own?

Ed Sheeran’s pub ownership appears in the search context for “London Tavern,” but no reviewed source connects him to the Bishopsgate venue or to any of the modern London Tavern sites. The editorial research notes record “Ed Sheeran owns a pub” as a related question; they do not supply the pub’s name.

Ed Sheeran’s pub ownership

Because the name of the pub was not included in the verified source set, this article cannot answer that part of the question without speculation. What the search context supports is that celebrity ownership is a separate thread from the London Tavern history. If you arrived through an Ed Sheeran query, you are looking for a different pub.

Connection to the London tavern category

The connection is thematic, not historical: people ask about celebrity-owned pubs in the same breath as the London Tavern because pub ownership and pub names carry cultural weight. The verified record for the historic London Tavern names Charles Bleaden, not a celebrity.

The trade-off: celebrity pub trivia can pull a “London Tavern” search far from Bishopsgate. Follow the owner clues, not the name alone.

Does Beckham own a pub?

The same search context includes a question about David Beckham and pub ownership. The name attached to that question in the editorial research notes is Walmer Castle, not the London Tavern.

David Beckham and Walmer Castle

Walmer Castle appears in the research notes as the pub associated with Beckham in related searches. It is not one of the London Tavern venues covered in the verified sources. The nearest verified link between a well-known figure and the London Tavern story is Charles Dickens, who chaired a fundraising dinner there in 1841 and attended a General Theatrical Fund dinner in 1851.

Other celebrity-owned pubs in London

The reviewed sources do not contain a verified list of celebrity-owned pubs in London. The comparison table above is the more reliable map: if the pub you are researching is not named London Tavern, the historic and modern entries in that table are not your destination.

Why this matters: a search query mixing “Beckham” and “London Tavern” is really an ownership question. For the historic tavern, the answer is Charles Bleaden in 1828; for Beckham, the research notes point to a different pub.

Alternative taverns in the same search orbit

Beyond the four London Tavern venues, a few other names keep appearing in the same local and search context. Bishopsgate’s White Hart may trace its history to around 1246, per Spitalfields Life. The Old James/Ship Tavern appears in Pepys-era material as another historic Bishopsgate inn, according to The Diary of Samuel Pepys encyclopedia. For modern readers, other London pub-hotel properties such as the Coach and Horses Hotel Kew or the Notting Hill Hotel (The Nott) offer a similar blend of pub and stay, though they are not London Taverns.

Location and getting there: which London Tavern is where

Because four venues share a similar name, the first step is geographic. The historic Bishopsgate site is at 1–3 Bishopsgate, in the City of London, near Cornhill. The London Tavern Hotel in Richmond (Melbourne) is at the corner of Lennox Street and Richmond Terrace. The Kilburn pub sits in the Kilburn district of London, and the Ringwood pub is in the BH24 postcode area of New Forest.

The map below is a placeholder; the key point is that “London Tavern” is not a single navigation target. A traveller heading to Richmond in Australia and a Londoner heading to Kilburn will not end up at the same door.

Timeline: the London Tavern through the centuries

• Pre-1765: The White Lion Tavern stands on the Bishopsgate site.
• 7 November 1765: Fire destroys the White Lion, the Black Lion, and many nearby buildings.
• 1767–1768: The rebuilding uses tontine financing; construction starts in 1767 and completes in 1768.
• September 1768: The rebuilt London Tavern opens.
• 1769: About 400 men meet to found the Society of the Supporters of the Bill of Rights.
• 1789: The Revolution Society holds a notable meeting after the fall of the Bastille.
• 4 March 1824: A meeting at the tavern leads to the RNLI’s founding.
• 1824: Marc Brunel holds the first public meeting for the Thames Tunnel at the tavern.
• 1828: Charles Bleaden is recorded as proprietor.
• 1841: Charles Dickens presides over a Sanatorium for Sick Authors and Artists fund meeting.
• 1851: Dickens attends a General Theatrical Fund dinner.
• 1873 or 1876: The building is demolished.
• Later: The name reappears in Poulner, Ringwood, Kilburn, and Richmond.

Timeline dates come from the sources cited above; differences on the demolition year are noted in London Guided Walks’ account. The “Later” line is a category statement, not a claim of direct continuity.

The bottom line: the London Tavern’s active civic life lasted roughly a century, from 1768 to the 1870s; the name outlived the building.

Frequently asked questions