The Green Man and Still

The Green Man and Still was a tavern in Oxford Street, London. It was much favoured during the 18th and 19th centuries by cricketers playing at the nearby Thomas Lord's grounds, including as William Beldham, Tom Walker and David Harris, and was also patronised by the leading bookmakers of the day.[1][2]

Etymology

The name may have been a reference to the coat of arms of the Worshipful Company of Distillers. This included a distilling apparatus - a still - and an American Indian, who sign-painters would have depicted clad in green leaves and similar to the legendary Green Man.[3][4] The Green Man, conflated with the legendary wild man of the wood had been symbols of intoxication since the 17th century.[5]

A number of other pubs have had this name, including former pubs in Clarkenwell, London [6] and Chorley.[7]

History

The tavern was originally situated at 335 Oxford Street, between Argyll Street and Queen Street (which no longer exists) and was also a coaching inn (a 1792 map shows it at the entrance to a stagecoach yard), the start point/terminus of several stage coach routes out of London. In the early 19th century there were two daily coaches from Bath that stopped here,[8] as well as wagons from Cheltenham[9]

In the early part of the 19th century, the pub was a meeting place for professional cricketers and bookmakers.[10] At the time, large sums of money could be bet on cricket and the Green Man was often where bookmakers would meet players to bribe them to throw matches.[11][12]

By 1852 it was also a parcel office for the London & North-Western Railway and in 1864 the established coaching firm of Chaplin & Horne took over the office, which had most likely stopped being a tavern by this date. In 1882, this office apparently closed and moved to 241 Oxford Street: however, as the current 241 premises (following the renumbering of Oxford Street during the late 19th century redevelopment) are barely 100 feet further west down the street, it couldn't have been too arduous a move. The building at 241 was purchased in 1898 by the Baker St & Waterloo Railway and demolished in February 1901, by which time the office had relocated to 151 Oxford Street (between Berwick Street and Poland Street), retaining the 'Green Man & Still' name as late as the early 1920s.

In culture

The tavern, described as a "famous haunt of cricketers", is mentioned in George McDonald Fraser's 1977 historical novel Flashman's Lady, although the author places it in Regent Street not in Oxford Street. Here, the scoundrel Harry Flashman has a chance meeting with Tom Brown, an old school acquaintance, which sets in course an unwelcome train of events.[13]

References
  1. Bateman, Anthony; Hill, Jeffrey (2011). The Cambridge Companion to Cricket. Cambridge University Press. p. 42. ISBN 9780521761291.
  2. Pycroft, James (1854). The Cricket Field/Chapter 6 . Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans. p. 100, 104 – via Wikisource. [scan Wikisource link]
  3. The Wordsworth dictionary of phrase & fable. Hertfordshire, England: Wordsworth Editions. 2001. p. 508. ISBN 9781840223101. OCLC 1195474178.
  4. Larwood, Jacob; Hotton, John (1866). The history of signboards, from the earliest times to the present day (3 ed.). p. 148. OCLC 640061686.
  5. Winick, Stephen (17 February 2021). "What Was the Green Man?". blogs.loc.gov. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
  6. "Green Man & Still, Clerkenwell". www.closedpubs.co.uk. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  7. "Green Man Still, Chorley". whatpub.com. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  8. An historical and descriptive account of Leamington and Warwick; to which are added, short notices of the towns, villages, etc. within the circuit of ten miles. Abridged from a larger work (An historical and descriptive account of the town and Castle of Warwick, etc. Signed, W. F., i.e., William Field. ). 1822.
  9. Griffith (1818). A general Cheltenham guide upon an entirely new plan : comp. from the most authentic sources, and embracing the ancient and modern history, state, and description of that celebrated town and its environs ... OCLC 45491924.
  10. Midwinter, Eric (2017). 'Class peace' : an analysis of social status and English cricket 1846-1962. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-908165-86-2. OCLC 1012175080.
  11. Mallett, Ashley Alexander (2002). The black lords of summer : the story of the 1868 aboriginal tour of England and beyond. St Lucia, Queensland, Australia: University of Queensland Press. p. 39. ISBN 0-7022-3262-9. OCLC 51766020.
  12. Pycroft, James (1854). Front cover image for The cricket field; or, The history and the science of the game of cricket The cricket field; or, The history and the science of the game of cricket (2 ed.). London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. pp. 100–101. OCLC 867624261.
  13. Fraser, George MacDonald (1977). Flashman's lady : from the Flashman Papers, 1842-1845. London: Barrie & Jenkins. ISBN 0-214-20388-3. OCLC 3586044. ...but it chanced that I was promenading down Regent Street one afternoon, twirling my cane with my hat on three hairs and seeking what I might devour, when I found myself outside "The Green Man". I paused, idly - and that moment's hesitation launched me on what was perhaps the strangest adventure of my life.

51°30′55″N 0°8′29″W


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