Book review including Cakes and Ale...?

Shakespeare's Local by Pete Brown

On the main road leading from London Bridge, a spit and a cough from The Globe Theatre, is a pub whose origins can be traced back to the time of Chaucer. In fact it stands near enough next door to the Tabard Pun, from where Chaucer's pilgrims departed in the Canterbury Tales.

In this book by beer writer Pete Brown the fascinating 600 years of the building's history is peeled back slowly and carefully. The reader learns about the history of the area, the history of beer and of the Inn itself.

As some one who likes this sort of personal history, and Pete Brown's style, I liked this book immensely. Unusually for me I did find it a book to dip in and out chapter by chapter as it was quite dense but I still read it over the course of 2 weeks rather than it laying discarded for months!

On my first trip to the Southwark area in a while I did search the building out, and while I only had time for a lemonade this time I will be back to have a more detailed look and to poke around into some of the remaining galleries.

As for whether or not this was Shakespeare's Local - you'll have to read the book to find out!