Listening in?

The Hoop & Grapes on Aldgate High Street is one of those strange old pubs that one would have expected to have vanished from London years ago.  Records suggest that it is the oldest licensed premises in the City of London.  Certainly its foundations, well beneath the modern road level, date from the 12th or 13th century, and the rest of the buiding is clearly ancient, leaning in that way that timber-framed buildings tend to with age.  Experts tell us, though, that the buidling dates back to just after the Great Fire of 1666.

What makes the pub unique is that it still has a listening tube that runs from the cellars to the bars.  This was installed so that the landlord could listen for seditious or malicious gossip - which, presumably, was more likely to occur while he was out of sight in the cellar.

There is also some evidence that somewhere in the cellars there is a blocked entrance to tunnel that runs from the pub to the nearby Tower of London.  No doubt excavations at some time in the future will reveal whether there is any truth in this story.

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