One of Fleet Street’s most historic pubs is to reopen after closing during the pandemic and never reopening.
The Tipperary started life in 1605 — or thereabouts — as The Boar’s Head, but was bought by the Irish pub group JG Mooney and Co. in the 1800s and was soon embellished with green paint, Guinness signage and gleaming mirrors.
In recent years, there have been claims that The Tipperary was London’s “oldest Irish pub”, and the building itself carried a plaque saying as much. The building is Grade II-listed. News of its closure two years ago was widely reported in Ireland.
The wood-panelled pub was bought by Greene King in the 1980s but was under private ownership for about a decade before being issued with a notice of possession and closing in the midst of the pandemic.
This week, news emerged from Save London Pubs, a social media campaign that shines a light on the capital’s most significant watering holes, notably those under threat of closure.
Save London Pubs confirmed The Tipperary will reopen after a refurbishment, with repairs due to both the exterior and interior, new seating added, and work to preserve its old features.
The trade journal Drinks Business said an application for a new premises licence was issued by the Reading-based Dominus Fleet Street Limited on January 15, with a notice to object from the City of London running until February 12.
The Tipperary would be a major comeback for London’s pub trade, and something of a revival for Fleet Street, once the drinking hub of newspaper people but long since a quieter stretch.
