The Ten Bells, E1

The Ten Bells is an historic Victorian single roomed bare boarded pub with a U-shaped island bar that supports craft keg alongside three hand pumps, two of which were in use drawing Brew York’s Fairytale of Brew York (a bit sweet for me) and Adnam’s Southwold during a recent late midweek afternoon visit before Christmas. This isn’t the biggest pub so the furniture is limited to banquettes and beer shelves that run around the exterior tiled walls, which this pub is known for, as well as the Jack the Ripper connection. This pub is worth a look for the history, but now I’ve been I don’t think I’ll be rushing back.

A prominent looking street corner pub just a short stroll from Spitalfields Market, it’s not as big as I expected internally, and consists of one single, high-ceilinged room with a central, wood panelled bar counter. The main feature of the pub is undoubtedly the tiled walling, part of which depicts an old scene from the market entitled Visiting a Weaver’s Shop. Elsewhere was a more modern image perhaps, with a gentleman in drag stood outside the pub entrance. The rest of the wall was still tiled in a blue and white pattern and there was further ornate tiling below in green, red and gold. Elsewhere was dark wood panelling and old wooden boards on the floor. Other than that, there seemed little of any note with a plain, featureless ceiling and run of the mill seating consisting of bar stools and some padded bench seating to one side. The solitary beer on tap was Young’s London Original whilst another pump appeared unused. Ciders meanwhile were Kingston Press and Seacider. Overall, I had expected a little more from this. It’s worth a quick stop if you’re passing perhaps, but it’s certainly not anywhere I would go out of my way to return to.

I hadn't properly registered the significance of the date, but the number of non-drinkers already making fools of themselves on Guinness soon brought it to my attention. The fact that the barman here was wearing one of those ridiculous leprechaun hats didn't mean he wasn't trying his best. The bar is small and central, and he was on his own. No surprise then that he was serving tall men before short, which put me to the back of the queue behind the attractive young woman next to me, who to be fair had got there before me anyway. As the only real ale was a session IPA from an unknown-to-me brewery, I didn't hang around apart from taking a couple of photos of the tiling. Maybe I'll come back when it's not a saint's day of any significance.

Nice old pub which is well described below. No ales on so had to make do with the "crafty" stuff again! Stone & Wood Pacific ale from Down Under which was a decent enough drink. Glad to have ticked this well known pub off!

This is a compact Grade II listed pub opposite Spitalfields Market and next to the impressive Christ Church, which has stood here since Truman’s re-located the pub in the 1850’s. The pub is perhaps most famous for its connections to Jack the Ripper, as one of his victims reportedly drank here shortly before she was murdered whilst another was known to pick up clients outside the pub. As such, the Ten Bells changed its name to ‘The Jack the Ripper’ during the 1970s before reverting again in 1988 and featured in the 2001 film ‘From Hell’. The pub deserves to be famous in its own right, as it features some fantastic internal Victorian tilework including an original tile painting depicting a scene from Spitalfields Market entitled ‘Spitalfields In Ye Olden Time’. In 2010, the landlord commission a companion piece entitled ‘Spitalfields In Modern Times’, which depicts a scene outside the pub and features notable local residents such as the artists Gilbert and George. Today, the pub has a single room layout, but there is plenty of evidence of a former multiple room configuration, most notably the island servery which stands slightly off-centre in the main part of the room. There are dark floorboards and a lincrusta ceiling throughout, which combine well with the smart glazed tiled panels which can be found around the room, creating a sense of the pub’s history. High tables and stools to the right of the bar give way to a little bit of standing room, whilst banquette seating is available down the front wall and a drinking ledge with high stools squeezes in along the left-hand side. The bar has a nice dark wood counter, but the remodelling over the years has resulted in most of the bar back being chopped out, leaving a small mirrored section strung with fairy lights. A combination of loud music and an even louder post-work crowd made it almost impossible to think, never mind hold a conversation, although I did note a sign pointing to a first-floor bar, which I didn’t explore but may well have offered a bit of respite. Truman’s are happily still represented on the bar here, with Blindside on handpull and a couple of other beers of theirs on keg. The Blindside was £4.70 a pint and in pretty good nick, although I can’t say it’s a brew I particularly favour. Youngs Ordinary was also available on cask, whilst other keg options included beers from Wychwood and Wild Wood among others. The bar staff here were very friendly, and one barman went out of his way to talk a customer through a large number of craft can options, which I thought was above the call of duty. This is a nice old pub with an interesting history and it’s pleasing that the interior still evokes that to a degree, even if the loud modern pop music and opened out interior diminishes the effect somewhat. I enjoyed popping in here and would suggest anyone interested in interesting pub features stops by to check out the tile paintings.