The Covent Garden Pub

General information

Steeped in history and located in the best part of London, we are just a stone’s throw from Covent Garden Tube station or a 5 minute walk from Leicester Square or Holborn. The building was constructed in the 1700’s although an exact date is hard to pin down we do know that the original use of the site was to house the Bow Street Runners whom are considered the first British police force established in 1763. With funding of £600 a year the Runners were effective in reducing Highway robbery until their funding was removed and the Highwaymen reappeared. The patrol was re-introduced in 1805 and the Runners would house prisoners and highway men beneath the building in the jail cells. There is still one original jail cell located under the road between the Opera House and the Covent Garden Pub just without the steel cages used in the old times. The earliest reference to a pub being on Bow Street takes up to Holden’s 1805 Tavern Directory where the Brunswick Tavern is listed and may well have been the Covent Garden Pub.