Eagle, London

Local listing:- This handsome public house located on a corner plot was rebuilt in 1901 replacing the earlier Eagle Tavern and music hall of c.1821. The former tavern had a pavilion in its grounds known as the Grecian Saloon, which was rebuilt as a proper theatre in 1841. It was also the place where Marie Lloyd the music hall singer made her first public performance in 1885. The current pub commands a corner site and is constructed of red brick with painted decorative plasterwork. It is two storeys with a large gabled attic floor and beautiful corner turret. The turret is topped with an ogee-shaped lead roof, decorative metalwork and an eagle statue. On the ground floor there are three entrances. The main entrance has a projecting porch supported by large brackets; the other two doors have curved pediments elaborately decorated with swags and scrolls. Stucco pilasters with Doric capitals are located between large timber-framed windows on the ground floor. The upper floors have a red brick façade with stucco string courses. The three tall gables have a central window and stucco arch with keystone. The former Eagle Tavern was the inspiration for the famous nursery rhyme ‘Pop goes the Weasel’. The current pub has the rhyme written on a board attached to the outside of the building. It reads: ‘Up and down the City Road, In and out the Eagle, That’s the way the money goes, Pop! Goes the Weasel.’ The rhyme apparently refers to local leather workers pawning their tools for the price of a drink.