White Horse Inn

Names

  • White Horse Inn
  • le Whytehorse Inne
  • White Horse Tavern
  • Ye White Horse in Fryday Streete
  • White Horse Coffee House
  • Whitehorse Inn

Street/Area/District

  • Friday Street

Maps & Views

Descriptions

from A Dictionary of London, by Henry Harben (1918)

White Horse Inn

On the west side of Friday Street at No. 32, in Bread Street Ward (P.O. Directory).

First mention: A tenement called "le Whytehorse Inne" in Friday Street in parish of St. Margaret, ward of Bread Street, 34 H. VIII. 1543 (L. and P H. VIII. XVIII. (1), p. 282).

Rebuilt since 1543.

from A New View of London, by Edward Hatton (1708)

White horse inn, on the W. side of Fryday str. near Old fish str.

from A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, by John Strype (1720)

[White Horse Inn.] In this [Friday] Street [is] White Horse Inn, large, and of a good resort.

from Lockie's Topography of London, by John Lockie (1810)

White-Horse-Inn, Friday-Street,—at 30, being that number of houses from 36, Cheapside.

from London Signs, by Bryant Lillywhite (1972)

16253 "le Whytehorse Inne" in Friday Street parish of St. Margaret 1543–50s; "The White Horse Fryday strete" 1553 Tavern 1556–1640s; "Y. Whit Hors Tavran in Fryday Streete" c1648–57; "Ye White Horse in Fryday Streete" 1657; "White Horse Inn, in Friday Street, parish of St. Margaret Moses" 1659–66; consumed in the great Fire. The tavern was contiguous to the Inn; rebuilt c1667–68 "both together".

"The Whitehorse Inn in ffryday street" 1668–c1827 No. 29 Friday Street thereafter is mentioned as Inn, Tavern & Coffee House, Coffee House to 1928.

"The White Horse Tap 31 Friday Street" 1826–27.643

from London Coffee Houses, by Bryant Lillywhite (1963)

1518. White Horse Coffee House, Friday Street, No. 29 (1826–27).

1800–11
Was formerly an inn or tavern. In 1800–1804 listed in use for masonic meetings. Listed in 1809–11 directories as Coffee House. Proprietor—Wm. Mountain.
1817–27
In 1817, as an Inn, and in 1827 as White Horse Tavern, again used for masonic meetings. 1826–7, White Horse Inn, 29, Friday Street. Proprietor—Wm. Farrer.

from A Descriptive Catalogue of the London Traders, Tavern, and Coffee-house Tokens Current in the 17th Century, by Jacob Henry Burn (1855)

508 At YE WHIT[E] HORS[E]—A horse current, in the field.
Rev. IN FRYDAY STREETE. [16]57—In field, E.M.M.

Fantastique, In Peele's Old Wives' Tale, 1595, says, "I had even as lieve the chamberlaine of the White Horse inn had called me up to bed."—Act i. sc. 1. the chamberlain is an officer whose duties are now nearly extinct. Chytræus, a German, who visited England about 1589, and narrated his observations in Latin verse, noticed, as an extraordinary circumstance, the custom in English inns of being waited on by women.

The White Horse tavern in Friday street was, from its contiguity to houses of distinction, the Mermaid in Cheap, and others in that locality, of considerable notoriety among bon-vivants, players, playwrights, and roisterers, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. In the Jests of George Peele it is mentioned as the scene of some of his mad pranks and irregularities ; and in the poetical productions of that period. The tavern was destroyed in the great fire of September, 1666, and on being rebuilt was constituted an inn with spacious yard, resuming the old sign. It is still there.

from the Grub Street Project, by Allison Muri (2006-present)

(1132) Obv. AT . Y . WHIT . HORS . TAVRAN = H.E.I.
Rev. IN . FRYDAY . STREETE = a horse running.

The initials should read H.E.P. (Mr. G.C. Brooke kindly confirms this from the British Museum specimen).

(1133) Obv. AT . YE . WHITE . HORSE = a horse current.
Rev. IN . FRYDAY . STREETE . 57 = E.M.M.

1641. "John Isham at ye White Horse in Friday Street" (Vintners' poll). The White Horse Tavern adjoined the inn of that sign, of which the entry survives between Nos. 28 and 30, Friday Street, while there is still a modern White Horse tavern at No. 32. [The present writer has given a full account of the inn and tavern in the London and Middlesex Archaeological Transactions .] A case in the Fire Decrees recites that "Sir Thomas Dacres leased the White Horse Taverne in Fryday Street in 1647 to John Isham, who transferred it to Pettitt, who was in possession at the time of the Fire, and is since declared insolvent The tokens were issued at the tavern; they were rarely issued at inns. Edward Miller issued the earlier token. In 1656 "Married Edward Miller of this parish Vintner and Mary Longe Spinster, daughter of William Longe Vintener of Polles Covent Garden" (at St. Margaret's Moses'). Wm. Long kept the Rose, Covent Garden.

1662. A daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Petty was buried at St. Margaret's Moses'.

1665. "Elizabeth wife of Henry Petty vintner" was buried. This gives the names of the issuers of token 1132.

—K. Rogers, "On Some Issuers of Seventeenth-Century London Tokens," The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Royal Numismatic Society Fifth Series, Vol. 8, No. 29/30 (1928), pp. 78–9.