St James Tavern
45 Great Windmill StreetSoho
W1D 7LW
Although this pub is not a listed building, it is a One Star pub on the Campaign for Real Ale’s (CAMRA) National Inventory with an interior of special national historic interest, and the description is as follows: “Built 1896 to designs by architect WM Brutton. It has a splendid set of tiled paintings - four Doulton's of Lambeth tiled panels with Shakespearean scenes and two others depicting hops and a vine. An error seems to have been introduced into one of the former: the words quoted from 'Henry IV Part 2' are not spoken by Bardolph but by Silence (one of the justices). 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' is represented by a suitably corpulent Falstaff sporting a set of antlers. A dashing Prince Henry addresses Falstaff in the third scene, from 'Henry IV Part 1. In the fourth, the court jester Touchstone woos the goat-girl Audrey from 'As You Like It': interestingly, apart from exchanging stripy apparel for a red outfit, the figure is the same as the jester at the Feuars Arms, Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland.”
The WhatPub link is here: WhatPub/St James Tavern
The Pub Heritage Group link is here: PHG/St James Tavern
The St James Tavern featured on the Evening Crawl of Soho on 1 December 2004, and the Saints and Sinners: Evening Crawl of Covent Garden, Fitzrovia and Soho on 13 April 2016.