User:RedJulianG40/sandbox

Two Chairman
The Two Chairman is one of the oldest public houses in Westminster

http://www.thefunctionroomuk.com/venue/two_chairmen_westminster/

http://bitaboutbritain.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/two-chairmen.html

http://www.twochairmen.com/

This is the Conservation Area Appraisal for the area around the Two Chairmen, which states: 3.5 After the mid 17th century, this part of Westminster declined somewhat in importance. As the area of St James’s became increasingly fashionable to the north, Tothill Street was rebuilt with smaller properties. A large number of these were used to provide inns and coaching yards, as the area offered good access for coach traffic from the west. The Two Chairman, in Dartmouth Street, is often identified as the oldest Westminster pub business; the sign can be traced to 1729, and its licensee, William Swain, for some 10 years before that. It’s on page 10 of this document: http://transact.westminster.gov.uk/docstores/publications_store/Birdcage%20Walk%20%20CAA%20SPD.pdf This is copy from the same document about The Royal Cockpit, a cockfighting theatre opposite the pub that the ‘chairmen’ waited for their aristocratic bosses to come out of: 3.17 On the eastern most point of the Christ’s Hospital Estate stood the Royal Cockpit, at the foot of the present day Cockpit Steps. It is thought this may have been built in 1671 by Charles II. The cockpit was certainly operational by 1741 when the lease was renewed, and it continued as a place of entertainment until its demolition in 1810 This copy is on page 12.

http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-207488-the-two-chairmen-public-house-greater-lo