The Prospect of Whitby

The tavern was formerly known as The Pelican and, later, as the Devil’s Tavern, on account of its dubious reputation. All that remains from the building's earliest period is the 400-year-old stone floor. The pub features 18th-century panelling and a 19th-century facade. The pub has a pewter-top bar and is decorated with many nautical objects. In former times it was a meeting place for sailors, smugglers, cutthroats and footpads. Sir Hugh Willoughby sailed from here in 1553 in a disastrous attempt to discover the North-East Passage to China. According to John Stow, it was "The usual place for hanging of pirates and sea-rovers, at the low-water mark, and there to remain till three tides had…

There is a scene in the 1956 film D-Day the Sixth of June, starring Robert Taylor and Richard Todd, in which Taylor's character is seen with Dana Wynter's character having drinks in the pub during the Second World War. The video for Gilbert O'Sullivan's 1970 hit "Nothing Rhymed" was shot here, as he was living close by in a bedsit when he wrote the song. The pub features briefly in an episode of Only Fools And Horses. When Uncle Albert goes missing in one episode Del Boy and Rodney travel around London looking for him. Nicholas Lyndhurst is shown in one scene walking out of the pub. In the comicbook The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Mina Harker pauses in front of the pub and says it…