The Greenwich Tavern (formerly the Gloucester Hotel and Gloucester Arms, among other names) is a

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

located at 1 King William Walk in

Greenwich, London Greenwich ( , , ) is an area in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian ( ...

, opposite the northern entrance to

Greenwich Park Greenwich Park is a former hunting park in Greenwich and one of the largest single green spaces in south-east London. One of the eight Royal Parks of London, and the first to be enclosed (in 1433), it covers , and is part of the Greenwich World H ...

. In 2023 it became the third London location with a rainbow plaque denoting a significant place in LGBTQI+ history, being the location of a key scene in the 1996 film '' Beautiful Thing''.

History

In 1902, the Gloucester Hotel was recorded as being on the site of a former prison used (c 1555) during the reign of

Mary I Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain as the wife of King Philip II from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She made vigorous a ...

to confine Protestant prisoners. (Later sources record a debtors' prison in Greenwich in 1812, close to a

Court of Requests The Court of Requests was a minor equity court in England and Wales. It was instituted by King Richard III in his 1484 parliament. It first became a formal tribunal with some Privy Council elements under Henry VII, hearing cases from the poor ...

- this term may denote a law court associated with the nearby Greenwich royal

Palace of Placentia The Palace of Placentia, also known as Greenwich Palace, was an English royal residence that was initially built by Prince Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, in 1443. Over the centuries it took several different forms, until it was turned into a ho ...

, or a latter-day 'small claims court' instituted in the 18th and early 19th centuries). The current building dates back to around the mid 19th century; '' The Examiner'' weekly newspaper recorded a fire at The Gloucester Hotel on the corner of Nevada Street (formerly Silver Street) and what was then named King William Street (formerly King Street) in December 1851. The rebuilt Gloucester Hotel was subsequently renamed The Gloucester, The Gloucester Arms, The Greenwich Park Bar & Grill and The Greenwich Tavern. In June 2023, the Greenwich Tavern was announced as the third London location to be marked by a rainbow plaque - used to denote significant people, places and moments in LGBTQI+ history. As the Gloucester Arms, then a well-known

gay bar A gay bar is a Bar (establishment), drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ+) clientele; the term ''gay'' is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBTQ+ communi ...

, it was the location of a key scene in the 1996 film '' Beautiful Thing'' which was set and filmed in

Thamesmead Thamesmead () is an area of south-east London, England, straddling the border between the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Bexley. It is located east of Charing Cross, north-east of Woolwich and west of Erith. It mainly c ...

and Greenwich. The plaque was unveiled at the Greenwich Tavern on 23 July 2023.

References

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