The Bunch of Grapes - A Choice Pick!

I’ve been to The Bunch of Grapes pub a bunch of times.  It’s on Brompton Road, a few short blocks from the polished brass doors of Harrods Department Store. Convenient.  But, in London, convenience does not trump great beer, wonderful food, or startlingly posh décor.  The Bunch of Grapes has all three, PLUS the convenience.  Don’t bother to search. Great is right down the street.

In 1777 The Bunch of Grapes had just opened, making it older than the United States.  Wait a sec.  Didn’t the U.S. start in 1776.  Nope.  Not until 1783 and the Treaty of Paris. Win that bar bet!

Inside this pub, the pure Victorian décor dates from the late 19^th Century.   Dark wood.  Magnificent cut-glass privacy panels.  Privacy was essential to the Victorian upper classes. Women and men did not sit together, for the simple reason that upper class men did not drink or smoke in the presence of ladies.  For the upper classes, the key was etiquette and decorum in all things. 

Discretion ruled, as did Queen Victoria, from 1837 until her death in 1901.  Often called the Pax Britannica, it was not as stagnant as some think.  The population of England, Scotland, and Wales nearly doubled.  Peace has a tendency to do that.  Unfortunately, it was also the time of the potato famine, which cut the population of Ireland nearly in half.

Victorian names you might remember:  Disraeli, Gladstone, Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes), Charles Dickens.  In this pub, you’re in the middle of that famous era.

The etched glass panels are extraordinary!

It's the small touches that add atmosphere

During Victoria’s reign, both prosperity and poverty increased.  Child labor at it’s worst. Sections of London were poor, in the dire sense that those of us in the west can no longer comprehend.

Time to get back to the pub, but it pays to remember the time period that envelopes you as you sit on your comfortable posterior and sip a pint of English ale.

The very word pub comes from the Victorians.  It’s short for Public House and it was often asked of a man, ‘Where do you drink?” as opposed to “Where do you live.”

Want to read more about the Victorians and pubs?  http://www.victorianlondon.org/entertainment/publichouses.htm

So sit back, have a pint of The Bunch of Grapes eponymous ale, and enjoy stepping into another era.  Eponymous??? Means taking the same name.

While you’re ordering that second pint, take a gander outside, along Brompton Road.  It began as open country, morphed to gardens, which in turn gave way to grand houses. King William III, established his court at Kensington Palace in 1686, and a town grew around it.

1851 brought The Great Exhibition.  Buildings sprang up, many of the stately homes came down, and after The Exhibition museums and Harrods took their place. The Piccadilly Metro Line opened in 1906 and is still one of the main arteries and the one you rode if you got off at Knightsbridge or South Kensington station.

See what you can learn sitting in a stylishly elegant Victorian pub, in the heart of upper crust Knightsbridge, sipping a real ale and washing down some steak and ale pie, or fish and chips?  Some folks only wander through the wonders of Harrods and rush off to another place, blissfully ignorant of the history in front of them and beneath their feet.

A great lesson for all of us:  The more beer you drink, the smarter you get!

http://gkpubs.co.uk/pubs-in-london/bunch-of-grapes-pub/