The George Inn: The Last Galleried Coaching Yard in London

The George Inn sits on a narrow yard off Borough High Street in Southwark, on the south bank of the Thames, close to the southern end of London Bridge. The yard is open to the sky. Along the surviving range runs a timber gallery with the rooms opening off it. The National Trust, which owns the inn, calls it London's last remaining galleried inn.

The coaching inn as building type

Before the railways, a long road journey meant stopping at an inn like this one. Southwark was the village at the southern end of London Bridge, and Borough High Street was lined with coaching inns on the road in from the south.

The plan was an open courtyard, with buildings on several sides, where coaches came in and turned, luggage was loaded, and horses were changed. Historic England describes the George as the south range of a coaching inn that was once ranged around a quadrangle, with galleries on two upper floors, the lower supported on cantilevered beams and the upper on wooden Doric columns. The survival is one range of a larger building.

The fire of 1676 and the rebuild

The National Trust's heritage record says the George stands on the site of an inn that existed in 1542. In 1676 the Southwark fire destroyed the previous inn, and in 1677 the present building was constructed. Borough Market's own timeline records the same fire the same year, sweeping along Borough High Street and destroying the market house. The records do not give a count of the houses it burned, so we do not give one.

So what you see is the rebuilding of a lost inn on its old plot, with the same yard and galleries. Historic England dates the building to the seventeenth century, timber frame and brick, under a tiled roof, and notes that the original inn dates back at least to the sixteenth century.

The railways and the rest of the yard

Coaching inns lost their trade to the railways, and their yards were valuable ground. At the George, Historic England records that the Great Eastern Railway eventually acquired the entire site from Guy's Hospital, used part of it as offices, and pulled down the north range. The National Trust and Historic England disagree on the year, 1874 in one and 1889 in the other, so the safe version is that it happened in the nineteenth century.

That is why the George is asymmetrical today. It is one range of a courtyard plan, with the other sides lost to later building. To picture what it was, imagine the surviving gallery extended in an L around the courtyard floor.

The National Trust acquisition

In 1937 the inn was given to its present owner, the National Trust. The Trust leases it to a private company, Greene King, which runs the pub, while the Trust keeps ownership and responsibility for the building. Historic England lists the George at Grade I (first listed 2 March 1950), its highest category.

What to look for

Stand in the yard and look up. The galleries are open timber walkways, with the rooms opening onto them rather than an internal corridor, which is how a coaching inn shared out its rooms among travellers. Entry to the courtyard is free, according to the National Trust; the pub is a working pub, and Greene King recommends booking ahead. Check the hours on the day.

Charles Dickens visited the site in its coffee house era, the National Trust says, and the George is mentioned in his novel Little Dorrit. That is as far as the record goes. Whether Shakespeare knew the inn, or whether plays were staged in its yard, is not documented in the sources we checked, so do not take it as fact when a tour guide offers it.

Borough Market is a short walk away. The market says its story began around a thousand years ago, when a market took shape at the foot of London Bridge, and that it has stood at its present spot since 1756. A railway viaduct cut through it in 1862. It is free to enter and closed on Mondays.

The George is the last stop of the South Bank and Bankside walk, which runs from County Hall along the river to Southwark Cathedral and the inn, and ends in the yard's gateway on Borough High Street.