The Tower Tavern on the corner of Clipstone Street and Cleveland Street stands next to the site of another public house that, according to some sources, had an unusual name.
“This was originally called the Bastard Arms in 1826 in honour of Henry Fitzroy (1663-1690), the bastard son of Charles II,” wrote Mike Pentelow, former editor of Fitzrovia News, in his guide to Fitzrovia’s pubs.
“Henry became the lord of Tottenham Court manor through marriage at the age of nine. Hence the area took its name from Fitzroy (meaning illegitimate son of a king).
“He packed a lot into his short life, killing two opponents in duels, kidnapping his sister-in-law, joined the navy and dying in battle, after being made the Earl of Euston and Duke of Grafton.
The Fitzroy Arms public house location on the 1947-1964 map. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.“By the 1840s the pub was renamed the more respectful Fitzroy Arms, until 1966 when it was knocked down as part of the building [by the Inner London Education Authority] of the polytechnic (now University of Westminster) and reopened in 1972 as the Tower Tavern, after the nearby Post Office Tower (now BT Tower).
“His mother, the Duchess of Cleveland (1641-1709) was said to be the lewdest of the king’s concubines and was reported to have bitten the penis off a recently exhumed bishop,” wrote Pentelow.
A photo taken in 1913 shows a row of terraced houses at 19-20 Clipstone Street, with part of the pub with the sign Fitzroy Arms visible on the left.
Another source says the original pub on the site was actually named after its one-time landlord, and much earlier.
“First licensed in 1776 as the Bastard Arms and named after the landlord, John Bastard. Renamed to Fitzroy Arms in 1826,” states the West London Pub Guide, by the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra).
This might well be true, but the historical record is unclear.
According to the Survey of London, in a chapter on the development of the area between Bolsover Street and Cleveland Street, one property developer in the 1770s “was the mason John Bastard, who moved from his previous base in nearby Suffolk (now Nassau) Street to build a couple of houses on the north side of Upper Marylebone (now New Cavendish) Street along with the Fitzroy Arms in Clipstone Street behind, all leased to him in 1776, two years before his death.”
Bastard built the pub, but was it ever named after him? I’d like to think it was.
The University of Westminster is the owner of the Tower Tavern pub which is currently closed and boarded up. The lease of the previous tenant of the pub expired and they chose not to renew it. The university is now exploring options in regards to this site, I’m told.
https://fitzrovianews.com/2024/03/17/history-notes-the-bastard-arms-clipstone-street/
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