Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

In honor of St. Patrick’s day and of all things involving green beer, Guinness and a few shots of Baileys, I decided to make a list of my top four favorite literary pubs/cafes.  Each of these holds some historical significance with books/writers.

1. The George Inn – London.  The George is one of my favorite pubs in London, located in Southwark right near Borough Market.  It has a huge outdoor area which is perfect for a post-borough-market pint in the sunshine (on those rare sunshine-y days in London).  The George Inn is about 400 years old and was built as the “George and Dragon” but was destroyed by fire in 1676.  After the pub was rebuilt and subsequently renamed, it was visited by Charles Dickens (who references the pub in Little Dorrit) as well as William Shakespeare (the pub is fairly close to the Globe).

The George Inn

Drawing of the George in 1870

2. The Fitzroy Tavern – London.  This pub, located between Goodge Street and Tottenham Court was visited by George Orwell, Virginia Woolf, and George Bernard Shaw among others.  My personal favorite story about this pub was that a drunken Dylan Thomas (a famous Welsh poet quoted as saying “An alcoholic is someone you don’t like, who drinks as much as you do”) would write poetry on napkins and hand them out to women in the bar he was trying to hit on.

The Fitzroy

3. The Elephant House – Edinburgh.  This famous pub is one I have yet to visit but have been dying to go to mostly due to the fact that Harry Potter was born here.  J K Rowling wrote a good portion of the books in this cafe/pub and could frequently be seen writing here.  After doing some additional research I also noticed that Ian Rankin (Inspector Rebus novels) and Alexander McCall Smith (no. 1 ladies detective agency) also did a portion of their writing here.  Two more great reasons to get to this pub ASAP.

Elephant House in Edinburgh

Where Harry Potter was written!

4. Les Deux Magots – Paris. Famous for visits from Ernest Hemingway but really an all around awesome cafe on Paris’s Left Bank.   Also said to have been visited by Jean Paul Sartre and Oscar Wilde.   Located right by the Saint-Germain-des-Prés metro stop (St. Germain is also my favorite place to stay when I visit Paris!).

Les Deux Magots