JUST THE TIPP!

(**For forthcoming Irish Pubs of the week, see https://www.instagram.com/publicanenemy/)

Yes! It’s back once again, like a Renegade Master! Firstly, I must note it didn’t take an excessive length of time to get to this pub. Yes, I reiterate, the journey was not a lengthy one from my original location to this destination, the Tipperary. The Tipp is simultaneously London’s oldest and newest Irish pub and has so much lore and legend it’s hard to say what’s what. Is it, as some say, the first Irish pub outside of Ireland? And was it the first pub in London to serve sweet, sweet Guinness? And was it here, on October 4th, 1969, that Ringo Starr of Beatles fame inadvertently invented the alcopop “Smirnoff Ice” by requesting 2 squirts of windowlene into his vodka tonic?? Questions, questions, questions! Some would refer to this Pub mythologizing as “Blarney” or a bit of the “gift o’ the gab,” but more accurately in Ireland we would describe it as bullshit. But no one loves a dubious origin myth more than myself (see the Azores trip- .https://publicanenemy.com/2022/09/03/whale-isle-be-damned-the-search-for-the-blessed-isles-episode-52the-azores/ ) . The pub themselves have a sign reading ‘since 1605′ when it was named , Anglo-Saxoningly , ‘The Boar’s Head’ up until the late 19th Century when it was bought by an Irish company JG Mooney & Co, a Dublin based spirit merchants and the progenitors of the Irish Pub concept abroad. How proud they would be to gaze upon the pools of neon green vomit outside of The Randy Leprachuaun, Tenerife of the current day.

What is clear is that the pub has stayed faithful to the original decor. It’s a Type II listed building, meaning you can’t be messin’ with it, so they’ve kept Ye Olde front, the marvelous mirrored ads and daring carpet and wall combo, even down to the shamrock mosaic on the floor. The bar itself is quite tight, but they have the old school Guinness tap which is fast becoming the telltale sign of quality. As is the range of tapas: every pub worth its salt & vinegar now has Taytos, so how can you impress a jaded pintsman such as myself? That’s right, Buffalo Hunky Dorys, the wagyu beef of the crisp realm.

To compensate for its lack of girth, like many a fronteirsman, the Tipp has annexed a large courtyard outside to the West where the majority of people are located. This exclave is larger than the pub itself but lacks the charm of the interior ; however they’ve put nice little lamps on the tables to spruce it up the same way your mam might do with a soulless guestroom that no ever uses. The pint was a joy to behold , and the place was pretty busy for 6 after work on a Weds.

I had, of course, been here before, in 2019, randomly finding it after attending a Pro-EU march, which was apparently the 2nd largest protest gathering in UK history, and about as utterly futile as the previous largest March against the Iraq War . Once Covid hit, Fleet Street where the Tipp can be found became a ghost town, and so the Tipperary fell into abandonment like a small Welsh town bereft of its European Regional Development funding. Having lain dormant for a few years, there was a worry that its wares would be fleeced and pub history lost forever. But like the county what bears its name, never write off the spirit of Tipp and lo it appears to be back and thriving. Notably, It’s the second brand new(ish) Irish pub to open this month, after Shoreditch’s Nancy Spains, which was Pub of the Week last week . And so, the great Irish pub Renaissance continues unabated, prolonging my quest into infinity in the meantime. Who knows for how long, but if one pub can survive, this would be my top- Tipp .