Lillie Langtry

Built in 1835 as the Lillie Arms and named after its freeholder owner, Sir John Scott Lillie (1790-1868). Originally a watering hole for the nearby Kensington Canal (opened 1828), later to become the West London Railway, this is Fulham’s oldest surviving 19th century pub. Enlarged in 1875 with a new ground floor addition and revamped frontage. Given its present name in 1979, no doubt because Lillie Langtry is considerably more interesting to history than Sir John! The "Jersey Lily" was a successful actress and courtesan in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, attracting huge public interest and reputedly having affairs with a string of noblemen including Bertie, Prince of Wales, who paid several visits to the nearby Earl's Court Exhibition grounds and might have courted Lillie nearby. She shrewdly used her fame to endorse commercial products such as cosmetics and Pears Soap. Her friend Oscar Wilde based the plot of his play Lady Windermere's Fan, on her life and society's attitude towards it. The pub reopened in August 2016 after an extensive refurbishment. There is a cocktail bar upstairs themed as a fashionable Victorian parlour. As at October 2021 it was reported that the availability of real ale post-pandemic could be variable but at least three of the four handpumps should offer ale.