GREENWICH TAVERNS
By G. W. YOUNGER, F.S.A.
THAT Dickens had a first-hand and intimate knowledge of Greenwich is evident from his writings, and one of his earliest experiences there must surely have been his visit to Greenwich fair, so graphically described in Sketches by Boz. No doubt he visited it on many subsequent occasions when acting as a reporter, and so following the human tide in search of "copy," enlisted the aid of the London Steamboat Co. and joined the throngs of holiday makers intent on enjoying a few hours in Greenwich Park, with the added inducement to sample the "tea and shrimps" so loudly vaunted by the respective tents intercepting them on their way to amid from it.
A careful perusal of Dickens's letters and diaries between 1837 amid 1869 reveals notes of fourteen occasions when he dined at Greenwich, sometimes as guest and sometimes as host, but there most surely have been many more unrecorded. Unfortunately only three houses are named, viz. : the Crown and Sceptre, the Trafalgar and the Ship, representing five visits, leaving nine unaccounted for. The full list is as follows:
| Date | Place | Occasion | ||
| 1. | 1837, July. | Crown and Sceptre | Literary Fund dinner | |
| 2. | 1838, Apl. 17 |
? |
In company with Forster, Browne and Cruikshank. (The Travfalgar Tavern was opened about this date.) | |
| 3. | 1838, Dec. 10 |
? |
Dinner with Browne. | |
| 4. | 1842, July. |
? |
Private dinner to C.D. on his return from the U.S.A. | |
| 5. | 1842, Dec. 2 |
? |
Lunched with Mitten. | |
| 6. | 1843, May 8 |
? |
Dinner with Stanfield, Macready and others. | |
| 7. | 1843, May 20 | Trafalgar. | Dinner to John Black. | |
| 8. | 1848, May 22 | Crown and Sceptre. | Reunion dinner of the Theatrical Co. "at a cost of 25/- each." | |
| 9. | 1850, June 6 |
? |
Dinner with Leech and Stone and their Ladies. | |
| 10. | 1851, July |
? |
In a letter to W. H. Wills, 16th July 1851, Dickens writes: "The cheque you have to pay to my account for the Greenwich dinner is £12 l0s. 6d." (£12.52)
We have no record of what was the occasion. |
|
| 11. | 1853, May 12 | Trafalgar. | Dinner for Felton. Mr. and Mrs. Stanfield and Peter Cunningham were invited. | |
| 12. | 1857, May 31 | (Probably the Ship.) | Dinner given by Russell. It was where Douglas Jerrold was taken ill and died eight days later. | |
| 13. | 1868, Sept. | Ship. | Dinner. | |
| 14. | 1869, July. | Dinner with Delane. | ||
It will be noticed that nearly all these visits would seem to have been by water, seeing that only two were in winter (December). A study of the above seems to show that Dickens was acquainted with the Crown and Sceptre and the Trafalgar long before he visited the Ship in September 1868.
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