Pub Gallery

'Who Comes Here?', 'A Grenadier' - Victorian nursery rhyme illustration

A British Grenadier from a later age approaches a tavern - “Ye Bleeding Horse” - where some medieval characters are imbibing ale. They send him on his way with a rudely thumbed nose and a sneer.
“‘Who comes here?' ‘A grenadier' - ‘What d'ye want?' ‘A pot of beer.' - ‘Where's your money?' ‘I forgot.' - ‘Get you gone you drunken sot.'”
From “Nursery Rhymes - Ridicula Rediviva” illustrated by J.E. Rogers, with chromolith printing by R. Clay Sons & Taylor and published in London in 1876 by Macmillan and Co.

Humour social comment the ale house cartoon by Cruikshank

This is a cartoon etching by the well-known Victorian social caricaturist / cartoonist George Cruikshank (1792 - 1878), dated 1832. The Ale House is one of two panels that belong side-by-side, and this is number 1 of 2. Its companion is called The Home. (1832 is actually in the reign of Queen Victoria's predecessor, William IV.) Amongst other things, Cruikshank provided book illustrations for Charles Dickens. (Title) The Ale House. Most of the men are smoking pipes, and a smoky fug pervades the sketch. On the table is a jug of ale and a variety of drinking vessels, no two the same. On the wall are pictures of cock fighting and dog fighting, two activities that now are frowned upon (although even today, in the USA, it is reported that there are around 40, 000 people professionally involved in such 'sport'). Overall, there is a bright atmosphere of drunken revelry, to contrast with the grim darkness of the companion sketch The Home. Designed Etched & Published byGeorge Cruikshank. Septr. 1st 1832.

© Whiteway

Fenian bombing BL05153

THE RISING SUN, Great Scotland Yard, London W1. Bomb damage to Rising Sun pub, showing its windows blown out and staff standing beside a damaged carriage lying in a pile of rubble. The bomb was planted during a bombing campaign carried out between 1883-1885 by the 'Fenians', 19th century Irish Nationalists. Photographed on 31st May 1884, the day after the bombing, by Bedford Lemere and Co.

© Historic England