Connection with Charles Dickens
Situated in the City, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is a pub that caught our attention due to its historical connection with Charles Dickens. It has been frequented by many famous writers and authors over the years. The Grade II listed building has a somewhat gloomy atmosphere, particularly in the chop room, but the interior design has remained unchanged, creating a timeless ambience. In Nick Louras’s blog, he explained the chop room details as,
“A painting of Dr Johnson hangs over his regular seat at the far end of the communal table along the righthand wall. The space to his left was regularly occupied by Charles Dickens a generation later. A plaque in the wall above the bench identifies Dickens’s customary seat. It is a nice place to sit, in the company of these writers, separated only by time”.
While we are not experts in English literature, we can see some connections with Charles Dickens in his “A Tale of Two Cities” –
“Drawing his arm through his own, he took him down Ludgate Hill to Fleet Street, and so, up a covered way, into a tavern. Here they were shown into a little room, where Charles Darnay was soon recruiting his strength with a good plain dinner and good wine; while Carton sat opposite to him at the same table, with his separate bottle of port before him, and his fully half-insolent manner upon him”.
The literary links perhaps are the main reasons attracting tourists to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. There are numerous studies exploring the connections between the pub and other writers. For international tourists, their knowledge of British literature may be primarily centred around Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and J.K. Rowling, among others. Further research could delve into the relationship between literary tourism and pub heritage in the UK.
Erotic tiles
It is surprising to discover the connection between Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese and London’s sexual history, which may be unconventional to present to the public. An article on thehistoryblog provides a brief overview of these tiles, accompanied by some photos that could make tourists from different cultural backgrounds uncomfortable. On Valentine’s Day in 2014, the tiles were displayed for one night only during the Museum of London’s late-night event called “Late London: City of Seduction,” which was exclusively for adults. Currently, the tiles are stored in the Museum of London for study purposes and are not on public display.
Apart from the sensitive theme, this raises concerns about whose heritage should be preserved and who has the authority to decide which heritage is presented to the public. These questions once again touch upon the power dynamics within museum institutions, but they also delve into the moral aspects of heritage preservation and public representation.
Last but not least, we can think about the issue of authenticity in the representation of Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. The quest for authenticity is not new in the field of tourism studies, but the global pandemic and the rise of the experiential economy have transformed the discourse and raised questions about traditional concepts and representations of authenticity. These transformations have given rise to new ways of experiencing tourism, where authenticity is seen as a means to enhance resilience for destinations and facilitate the recovery of the visitor economy.
Polly
According to the Historical Marker Database,
“For around 40 years, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese was associated with an African grey parrot named Polly. The popularity of Polly was perhaps down to her ability to speak obscenities, with “f**k the Kaiser” being a rumoured favourite. The fame of the parrot was such that on its death in 1926 around 200 newspapers across the world wrote an obituary…”.
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