Building    From 1564  To 1962

Peacock Inn, Islington

Categories: Commerce, Food & Drink

From Islington Council:"Four inns are known to have occupied this site, with the earliest dating from 1564. The Peacock has been immortalised both in print and on canvas. In 1823, James Pollard painted his North Country Mails at the Peacock.

In the novel 'Tom Brown's School Days', Tom spends a night at the Peacock before catching the 'Tally Ho' coach to Rugby. Dickens also mentions the Peacock in his story 'Boots at the Cherry Tree Inn.' The importance of the Peacock declined with the demise of the four-in-hand carriage; the travelling public now entrusted itself to the railways. In 1857 the distinctive exterior of the Peacock was transformed with large plate shop windows and shop fittings, but it continued as a public house until 1962."

Matt Brown of Londonist told us: "The Peacock also gets a mention in Nicholas Nickleby. The protagonist stops briefly here on his coach journey north to Yorkshire." And Byron Anthony tells us Dickens mentions it in one of his Christmas stories titled "The Holly Tree".

2023: Now having read it we can report that in 'Tom Brown's School Days' there are 4 pages (70-74) describing what it was like to stay at the Peacock in the 1830s, to be woken before 3am to catch your coach. 

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Peacock Inn, Islington

Commemorated ati

Peacock Inn

Peacock Inn stood here, 1564 - 1962 Historic Site, London Borough of Islington

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Other Subjects

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1 memorial
R. Mackay

R. Mackay

Chairman of the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society in 1900.

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1 memorial
Pimlico District Heating Undertaking

Pimlico District Heating Undertaking

The first district heating system built in the UK, with the UK's largest thermal store, the accumulator. It supplies heat to 3,256 homes, 50 business premises and three schools. Owned and managed b...

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T. Heard

T. Heard

Worked for the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society. Was on the building committee for the Bostall Estate in 1900.

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1 memorial
Avrasons

Avrasons

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Previously viewed

Besley drinking fountain removed

Besley drinking fountain removed

EC1, Aldersgate Street, 107

This plaque surely should have been designed with the Clarendon typeface, just as Johnston's plaque used his.

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Anthony Noel Eskenzi

Anthony Noel Eskenzi

Commoner on the City Lands & Bridge House Estates Committee, 1994.

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1 memorial
Private John Lynn VC

Private John Lynn VC

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The plaque is on the ground near the Lewisham war memorial.

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Thomas Hearne

Thomas Hearne

Thomas Hearne was born on 22 September 1744 in Marshfield, Gloucestershire, the son of William and Prudence Hearne. He was baptised on 26 September 1744 in St Mary the Virgin Church, Marshfield. H...

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1 memorial
Little Dorrit

Little Dorrit

A novel by Charles Dickens first published in serial form 1855 and 1857.  The title character is the daughter of a man imprisioned in Marshalsea prison for debt.

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6 memorials