Plaque Wording: The Site of The Toy Inn An ancient Hostelry of Note
Built for Oliver Cromwell's troops c.1650 rebuilt c.1700 demolished c.1840 wherein Pope wrote the Rape of the Lock; the Duke of Clarence, afterwards WIlliam IV, formed & presided over his Toy Club; and Thomas Dunckerley founded the Masonic Lodge of Harmony 255 in 1785. The Lodge held here for 37 years, now erects this Tablet. July 1933

Plaque Wording: The George and Devonshire, originally called The George, is a Grade II listed building, and has traded as a public house since the 1650's. It is the last pub still trading in what was Chiswick Village, the others having been demolished or closed down.
The George and Devonshire has had generations of publicans over the years including John Howell Burden, the assistant purser of the Lusitania, aged 25, who was drowned when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat on 7th May 1915. Both are buried in Chiswick Graveyard.
In the 18th century, smugglers used to row up the Thames with their contraband goods of rum and spirits and at a given signal pull over towards the huddle of fisher cottages between the river and the medieval church of St Nicholas. Somewhere among those tiny houses was the opening of a tunnel which led under the church to the George and Devonshire. There the boats would be unloaded and the goods carried up a secret passage, which led into the cellar. Evidence of this passageway can be seen today in the cellar of the George and Devonshire with two steps leading up to a bricked up doorway, facing towards the river!

Plaque Wording: The North Star, 104 Finchley Road. The North Star was built in 1850 as one of the first buildings to grace the new Finchley Road. This highway had been constructed in 1835 as an alternative by-pass route to the old road from London to the north, which took the gruelling haul up through the congested streets of Hampstead. The North Star was purpose built as a pub, as can be seen from the handsome exterior, which boasts attractive embossed stars at the tops of the main pillar supports. Originally above this, at roof level, was an elaborate stone balustrade and arch, but these became unsafe, and were eventually removed. However, at first floor level there remains a magnificent cast-iron Victorian balcony. The pub was once the terminus for short-haul trams out of London in the 1920's, but far closer ties with London Transport was to come in the 1930's. A decision was made to extend the Bakerloo Line (now the Jubilee line) to relieve the overcrowded Metropolitan line. In order for the new line to come to the surface between Swiss Cottage and Finchley Road stations, the Metropolitan had to be diverted, and opened in November 1939 with the southbound line in a tunnel that lies a mere three feet below the cellar floor. The rumblings of the trains can easily be heard, and felt, in the bar.

Plaque Wording: Founded AD 1549 Rebuilt AD 1923 The Ship Tavern
This Tavern was established in the year 1549. During the proscription of the Roman Catholic religion, it was used as a shelter for Priests and Services were held here secretly. The neighbourhood was once notorious for the gambling houses of Whetstone Park. Famous visitors have been Richard Penderell, who aided King Charles' escape, Bayford, shoemaker and antiquarian, the woman Chevalier d'Eon, who lived as a man, and Smeaton the builder of the first Eddystone Lighthouse. It was a centre of Freemasonry and a Lodge with the number 234 was consecrated here by the Grand Master the Earl of Antrim in 1786.