The newly reopened Three Lords makes a welcome addition to the pubs on Minories, near Aldgate in East London. The pub’s name has an interesting history to add to the unusual street name, so let’s start there. The road is named after a 13th century convent for the Order of St Claire, officially called the ‘Abbey of the Minoresses of St Clare without Aldgate’. The nuns were known as the Minoresses, which is Latin for little sisters.
The explanation for the pub’s name comes from some centuries later and relates to four lords rather than three. Following the failed Jacobite rebellion in 1745, four Scottish noblemen, the Earl of Cromartie and the Lords Lovat, Balmarino and Kilmarnark, were found guilty of high treason and sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered. Cromartie, thanks to his wife’s petition, had his sentence commuted to life in exile in Devonshire while Balmarino, Kilmarnark and Lovat had their sentences commuted to beheading. Simon Fraser, the 11th Lord Lovat became, on 9 April 1747, the last man to be publicly beheaded in England. The executions took place on Tower Hill. The link to the pub is that it is rumoured that at least two of these three lords spent the night before their execution in a pub on this site. In its hallway, the pub has portraits of the four and a poster to commemorate the story.
The London Brewing Company (LBC), which brews its beers at the Bohemia, North Finchley, took over the pub last summer. It has undertaken a sympathetic refurbishment which included installing new handpumps, for them to sell four of their cask beers. Senan Sexton, one of LBC’s owners said, “We had been looking for a second pub for six years. It’s a great setting and, with an independent landlord, it’s free of tie enabling us to stock our own beers.”
There are two bars on two floors, with cask beer only on the ground floor. LBC’s keg beers are available in both bars. The basement is cosy with a hidden snug in the right-hand corner. Both bars have framed posters but look out for the splendid glass to the right of the bar on the ground floor, advertising Upright and Beer Street.
They have only a small kitchen and so the menu is simple, comprising snacks, salads, burgers and flat breads. Food is served 12pm to 9pm Monday to Saturday; the pub does not open on Sundays.
As well as being close to Aldgate tube station, it’s only a ten-minute walk from the Tower of London. As a consequence, Senan is hoping to attract tourists, particularly those with the taste for independent London beer. It certainly offers something different when compared to the usual large brewery offerings in other pubs nearby.
Christine Cryne