Public House
A major new book about the London pub, explored through multiple voices and perspectives and edited by David Knight and Cristina Monteiro.
More info
For centuries, the London pub has been a place of social fermentation where all manner of people have come to drink, think, share stories, and company. Surviving plagues, bombs, fires, and floods, they have borne witness to wakes, weddings, and the writing of world-changing manifestos. London’s pubs have provided the social and architectural infrastructure for civic life to thrive with a remarkably varied mix of spaces for meeting, making up, breaking up, and cultural conviviality.
From opulent former Gin Palaces to humble Taverns to Micropubs and community-owned pubs, the story of London’s more than 3,500 pubs tells the story of the city itself. This book will celebrate the incredible diversity, design, and stories of London’s public houses as we are at last able to enjoy them again. Tracing the development of the pub as an enduring institution through societal upheavals the book will connect changes in pubs with wider social and political movements; filled with original drawings, photography, and archive material.
The book is conceived as a conversation, with many voices telling tales of pubs across London, and through them teasing out important themes including architecture, music, LGBTQ+ history, comedy, migration, and intangible cultural heritage. Interspersed are shorter texts written by the editors, covering over 100 pubs across the city’s past and present, weaving a tapestry of the pub’s complex and diverse role in the life of London, from 1388 to 2021.
Context
Published by Open City to coincide with the 2021 Open House London festival.
Credits
Including contributions from: Jennifer Lucy Allan, Nana Biamah-Ofosu, Jessica Boak and Ray Bailey, Clare Cumberlidge, Ruth Ewan, Paul Flynn, Kelly Foster, Laura C. Forster, Orit Gat, Phineas Harper, Rupa Huq MP, Jonathan Moses, Daniel Rosbottom, Bernd Schmutz, Neal Shasore, Bob Stanley, Timothy Smith, Eleanor Suess, Isy Suttie, Jonathan Taylor, Luke Turner, Lily Waite, and Jaega Wise, and with a preface by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan.
Edited by David Knight and Cristina Monteiro
Designed by Studio Christopher Victor
Published by Open City
Financial Times Books of the Year 2021
Feature in The Guardian, September 2021
Buy the book here
Close More info
Related entries
Expanding London's Public Realm
A design guide to enhance the public value and design quality of London’s expanded public realm.
A Thames-side pavilion hosting community events, evening dinners and a daily café whilst rewriting the narrative of Erith’s regeneration.
Other Research
A public document exploring Bristol’s harbour as it is prior to developing a 20-year Place Shaping Strategy for the area.
Exploring the needs and ambitions of the Royal Docks business community.
Listening to the Grand Union Canal
An engagement study which captures the use and perceptions of the canal at Old Oak and Park Royal.
A series of films made with local young people captures a diverse and varied portrait of Bruce Grove.
An exhibition about stepping across sectors and beyond traditional architectural practice to build new forms of publicness, with Public Practice and Alison Crawshaw.
Both a practical guide for the householder and an exploration of the limits of legislation.
The Tenement: collective city dwelling before Modernism
Exploring collective dwelling at the Society of Architectural Historians Annual International Conference 2017
Doctoral research exploring the relationship between English public planning and wider society, with a focus on online discourse and knowledge exchange.
Guide to the Wastelands of the Lea Valley: 12 empty spaces await the London Olympics is a polemical guidebook to the pre-Olympic lower Lea Valley.
DK-CM’s contribution to San Rocco’s Book of Copies project in 2013, compiling 50 photocopies on the theme of ‘Shop Windows.’
A research study into the social and historical context of the industrial areas of Barking & Dagenham through a series of interviews with local creatives, produced by DK-CM, Create London and the New Economics Foundation.
King’s Cross Urban Actions Field Guide for the London Festival of Architecture 2012.
A exhibition exploring the aesthetics and consequences of housing regulation.
A Europe-wide 3 year research project on Roma dwelling and housing.
