Crown & Two Chairmen

A busy corner pub, with lunchtime table service on the first floor. Called the Crown until 1736 it is said to have been re-named after two sedan chair men who would stop by for the proverbial swift 'alf having dropped off Queen Anne (the last reigning Stuart) to have her portrait painted in a studio opposite by Sir James Thornhill. Karl Marx, the great 19th century socialist thinker and communist lived next door to the Crown & Two Chairmen during his "long, sleepless night of exile", and may well have sought inspiration here (or possibly drowned his sorrows). Here also Thackeray is said to have met the book illustrator and travel writer G A Sala. The pub was rebuilt by Meux's Brewery Co Ltd in 1929 and subsequently George Orwell and Graham Greene were regulars in the 1940s, accompanied from time to time by Arthur Koestler. Don't trip over the resident bearded collie, Maxwell. Sandwich & drink meal offer Mon-Fri up to 5pm. Sunday roast includes up to 5 options.