The Prospect of Whitby

The famous riverside public house 'The Prospect of Whitby', on Wapping Wall, dates back to 1520 and was once notorious for smuggling in visitors as Samuel Pepys testified, as well as being a den of thieves. Originally it was known as the Devil's Tavern and for good reason.

The old Devil's Tavern suffered severe damage from a disastrous fire which swept through maritime Wapping in 1682. The landlord changed its name to the `The Prospect of Whitby' in 1777, after one of the collier boats, built at Whitby, which brought coal down from Newcastle to the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, just north of the pub. The ship was lost at sea in 1795.

Samuel Pepys visited the Tavern when on naval business. The room he used to dine in is today called `Ye Pepys Room'. Charles Dickens apparently made notes while sitting on the high settee on the wooden balcony in `Ye Pepys Room'.

The pub was well known to Dr. Samuel Johnson, the author of the first English dictionary and the landscape painter, Joseph Turner who stayed there under an assumed name. Gustave Dore, the French painter would sit on the verandah or Pelican Stairs and sketch the riverside scene and Whistler, the American painter, was also a patron.

Nearby are The Turk's Head and the Town of Ramsgate.

See also The Grapes at Limehouse Reach.