This grade I listed building, owned by The National Trust, is London’s only remaining galleried coaching inn. It can be traced back to 1542, although it’s likely that it existed before this. It also served as a theatre and it’s highly probable that Shakespeare himself drank here. The current building is a relative newcomer, built in 1676 after the old one burnt down. Nevertheless, it was old even by Dickens’ time—he knew this place well, and mentions it in the novel “Little Dorrit”. It was larger then—what remains is just one of three sides, which surrounded the courtyard. But, early in the last century the then owners, the Great Northern Railway Company, demolished the other two sides of it to make way for a storage depot.