Sir Sydney Smith

The Sir Sydney Smith public house has been serving the East End of London since at least 1809. Named after a British Admiral of the Napoleonic Wars, it has somehow survived for over 200 years to become one of the few remaining early 19th century pubs in an area of London which once had hundreds. Refurbished probably dozens of times over that period, sadly nothing remains of what the pub must have looked like inside, when outside the road was cobbled and alive to the sound of dock workers with carts and horses loading and unloading cargoes from the nearby London docks. Outside the building was remodelled extensively in the 1920s by the local brewery Truman Hanbury Buxton, who then owned it, and it remains a fine example of their efforts of the time to upgrade the appearance of their pub portfolio to appeal to a wider market