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The Pillars of Hercules | |
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General information | |
Address | 7 Greek Street London W1 |
Coordinates | 51°30′52″N0°07′52″W / 51.514558°N 0.131176°W |
Bar Hercules, historically the Pillars of Hercules, was a pub in Greek Street, Soho, London, originally named for the Pillars of Hercules of antiquity. Most of what exists was built around 1910, but the pub dates back to 1733. [1] The road at the side of the pub through the arch is named Manette Street, after Dr Manette, one of the characters from A Tale of Two Cities , who is described in the book as living near Soho Square.
More recently, the pub has been favoured by many figures from the London literary scene, including Martin Amis, Ian Hamilton, Julian Barnes and Ian McEwan. Clive James named his second book of literary criticism (At the Pillars of Hercules) after it, apparently because that was where most of the pieces within it were commissioned, delivered or written. Singer Nick Drake is also said to have frequented the pub during his time in London, [2] and theatre designer Sean Kenny drank there with his staff in the 1960s, their design studio being a few steps from the pub's back door.[ citation needed ] The critic James Wood includes an anecdote set in the pub in his study The Irresponsible Self: On Laughter and the Novel (2004):
One London lunchtime, many years ago, the late poet and editor Ian Hamilton was sitting at his usual table in a Soho pub called the Pillars of Hercules. The pub was where much of the business of Hamilton's literary journal, The New Review, was conducted. It was sickeningly early—not to be at work, but to be at drink. A pale, haggard poet entered, and Hamilton offered him a chair and a glass of something. "Oh no, I just can’t keep drinking," said the weakened poet. "I must give it up. It's doing terrible things to me. It's not even giving me any pleasure any longer." But Hamilton, narrowing his eyes, responded to this feebleness in a tone of weary stoicism, and said in a quiet, hard voice, "Well, none of us likes it." [3]
The pub closed on 24 February 2018, [4] reopening later in the year as Bar Hercules under new owners Be At One. [5] In 2022, the cocktail bar chain Simmons took over the pub. [6]
Sir Kingsley William Amis was an English novelist, poet, critic and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social and literary criticism. He is best known for satirical comedies such as Lucky Jim (1954), One Fat Englishman (1963), Ending Up (1974), Jake's Thing (1978) and The Old Devils (1986).
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Davy Byrne's pub is a public house located at 21 Duke Street, Dublin. It was made famous by its appearance in Chapter 8 ('Lestrygonians') of James Joyce's 1922 modernist novel Ulysses, set on Thursday 16 June 1904. The main character, advertising canvasser Leopold Bloom, stops at just before 2 pm for a gorgonzola cheese sandwich with mustard and a glass of burgundy while wandering through Dublin.
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The Colony Room Club was a private members' drinking club at 41 Dean Street, Soho, London. It was founded and presided over by Muriel Belcher from its inception in 1948 until her death in 1979.
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Manette Street is a small street in the Soho area of London, linking the Charing Cross Road to Greek Street. Dating from the 1690s, and formerly named Rose Street, it is now named after the fictional character of Dr Manette in Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, who is described in the book as living on a quiet street corner "not far from Soho Square".
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