The Fitzroy Tavern

The Fitzroy Tavern is a public house situated at 16 Charlotte Street in the Fitzrovia district of central London, England, to which it gives its name. It is currently owned by the Samuel Smith Brewery. It became famous during a period spanning the 1920s to the mid-1950s as a meeting place for many of London's artists, intellectuals and bohemians such as Jacob Epstein, Nina Hamnett, Dylan Thomas, Augustus John, and George Orwell. It is named either directly or indirectly after the Fitzroy family, Dukes of Grafton, who owned much of the land on which Fitzrovia was built. The building was originally constructed as the Fitzroy Coffee House, in 1883, and converted to a pub (called "The Hundred Marks") in 1887, by W. M. Brutton. In the early years of the 20th century, Judah Morris Kleinfeld became licensee. He rebranded it "the Fitzroy Tavern" in March 1919.The licence then passed to his daughter and her husband Charles Allchild who ran it into the 1950s His granddaughter Sally Fiber who worked behind the bar from a very young age eventually wrote a history of the pub "The Fitzroy: The Autobiography of a London Tavern" with the help of Clive Powell-Williams. Now re-published in September 2014 with up-dated content by Sally with help from DeSapinaud Productions. There are photographs on the walls of both Michael Bentine and Dylan Thomas drinking in the pub. There is also a photograph of George Orwell (but not actually sitting in the pub). Wartime notice on the wall of the Fitzroy Tavern It makes an appearance in the high-resolution picture of London taken in 2012 as a part of the Cities 360 project hosted by BT. This project shows the largest panorama of London most recently produced from the top of the BT Tower. The Fitzroy Tavern has been a regular gathering place for fans of Doctor Who since Thursday 1 November 1984. Fans meet there, informally, on the first Thursday evening of each month. Since 2000 it has been the home of the Pear Shaped Comedy Club which runs every Wednesday in the downstairs bar.