Cittie of Yorke

The Cittie of York
General information
Address	22 High Holborn London WC1V 6BS
Coordinates	51°31′06″N 0°06′46″W / 51.518395°N 0.112812°WCoordinates: 51°31′06″N 0°06′46″W / 51.518395°N 0.112812°W
Owner	Samuel Smith's

The Cittie of Yorke is a grade II listed public house on London's High Holborn, and is listed in CAMRA's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors.^[1][2] The pub is owned and operated by Samuel Smith's Old Brewery.

Although the current building is a rebuilding of the 1920s, the buildings on this site have been pubs since 1430.^[2] Some features include the Henekey's long bar^[3] located in the grand, hall-like back room,^[4] a late-Georgian or Regency era triangular metal stove, and Victorian-style cubicles.^[3][4]

The Welsh poet Dylan Thomas penned an impromptu ode to the pub when it was called Henneky's Long Bar. Fred Jarvis, a former general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, found the previously unknown poem in 2014 while going through papers belonging to his late parents-in-law who knew Thomas. The top of the poem reads "This little song was written in Henneky's Long Bar High Holborn by Dylan Thomas in 1951." Orion Publishing Group plans to include the song in a new edition of collected Thomas poems in October 2014.^[5]

References

1. Brandwood, Geoff (2013). Britain's best real heritage pubs. St. Albans: CAMRA. p. 61. ISBN 9781852493042.
2. Protz, R. (ed.), Good Beer Guide; 2006, ISBN 1-85249-211-2
3. Cropper, S. (ed.), Time Out: Pubs & Bars: London, Edition 7, ISBN 0-903446-95-2
4. Pubs.com - Cittie of Yorke info (accessed 2008-03-31)
5. Caroline Davies, Dylan Thomas's drinking ditty to be published for first time, The Guardian, 26 June 2014.