Jamaica Wine House
Three mahogany screens stand at right angles to the counter and cut the room into four, a layout CAMRA says survives nowhere else.1
Why go
CAMRA grades this interior three-star, a pub interior of outstanding national historic importance
, and the screens are what earn it. The pub is up a short alley off Cornhill beside St Michael's church, under a massive iron-bracketed lantern carrying its name, and the City calls it the Jam Pot.1
The date on the wall is not the date of the building. CAMRA's branch: the original burned in the Great Fire, the current red brick and sandstone block is an 1885 rebuild to designs by Banister Fletcher, and don't fall for the 'Built 1652' notices!
Shepherd Neame bought the free house in April 2009.1
Real ale is on the ground floor only, across two bars, with a guest beer that changes every six weeks.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: the guest, since it is the only thing on the bar that moves.1
- Avoid: drinking downstairs and thinking you have seen it. The screened ground floor is the graded room.1
What locals & experts say
- CAMRA's National Inventory:
Three star - A pub interior of outstanding national historic importance
, and on the reason,This pub features a most unusual layout, comprising three mahogany screens at right angles to the bar counter, thus dividing the area into four discrete sections.
1 - The same record, on the pub's own signage:
don't fall for the 'Built 1652' notices!
1 - Nobody has written about the beer or the food.
Good to know
- Where: St Michael's Alley, off Cornhill EC3V 9DS. Bank is three minutes.
- Finding it: look for the iron-bracketed lantern with the name on it, beside St Michael's church.1
- Real ale: ground floor only, two bars, guest changing every six weeks.1
- The 1652 story: this alley is where England's first coffee house stood. That is the site's history and not this business's age.
Verdict
should-visit — Three mahogany screens standing at right angles to the bar counter, cutting one room into four, and CAMRA's branch says that layout is not known to survive anywhere else. The interior is graded three-star, of outstanding national historic importance, which is the highest CAMRA gives. The pub sits up an alley off Cornhill beside St Michael's church under a huge iron-bracketed lantern, and the alley is where London's first coffee house stood, which is a fact about the ground rather than about this business. The building is Banister Fletcher's 1885 rebuild and the branch tells you plainly not to believe the 'Built 1652' notices inside. Real ale is on the ground floor only, with a guest changing every six weeks. It stops short of the top rung because nobody has published anything about how the beer or the food is.