June 2026. London.
In central London on the hottest day of the year, I had that joy of an aimless pre-gig wander through the capital, now so freed of traffic you can cross roads without looking and stand in the middle of busy streets taking pictures.
It’s a city spoilt only by the presence of Arsenal, and Spurs, and nostalgia seeking music fans pushing the price of Premier Inns up above £350 a night, and it’s wonderful.
Eaves Wilder, who probably deserves an exclamation mark in her name, is playing The Social, a few streets back from Oxford Street.
A different crowd to Soho round here, more post-work than tourist, and plenty of pub heritage.
I was always going to pick the closest Sam Smiths house,
whether the Cock still had cask OBB or not,
oh, it does, a tasty (if rather chilled) pint,
and I was always going to sneak a photo or two of this majestic interior,
before sinking into the bench seat and just admiring a Proper London Pub in full flow.
But now, as we learn of Humphrey’s death, I feel a slight sadness to have broken his rules, even if his London pubs rarely enforced them.
Matthew (here) and Peter (here) have written lovely, sensible tributes to Mr Smith, a divisive character for sure.
So I‘ll just thank him for his pubs, and his underrated beer, and send my love to his family.
retiredmartin 
He certainly has a great view of how pub buildings should be, the Borough Bailiff (now Commercial, but closed) in Knaresbrough is a great example, he had to really fight the planning dept to get the extension bit done in the same olde worlde style.
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The bottled stout is one of the best bottled beers I’ve ever had. The breweries beers are very good if you don’t have a limited sense of what beer can be. The pubs are a truly amazing experience. Oddly run to be sure, but when they clicked they really clicked.
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The beers are really underrated.
I remember taking a lager drinking friend from Cambridge in the Cow & Calf years back and he thought their lager was superior to any continental stuff. Chap I met yesterday raved about the Melbourn fruit beers. I loved their keg stout.
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The pubs are indeed a truly amazing experience.
How many customers realise that that Cock Tavern’s interior isn’t the original or that the Princess Louise was open plan before Humphrey took it on ?
His ‘ordinary’ pubs, like I used in Whitby and Scarborough the week before he died, are just about the best of the 347 I’ve drunk in during the first half of this year.
His passing emphasises all that Humphrey achieved.
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Lost my OBB virginity at The Princess Louise, Holborn back in March for the princely summer of £6.50. Which was nice.
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Ruddy hell. That’s two great pub curmudgeons who’ve died this year.
There’s a lot to be said for smart oddballs in the increasingly homogeneous corporate pub world, as well as banning twats on ‘phones in the pubs.
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Agree Prof (I assume), though I think you could ban conversations on phones and still let people use them to check on cricket scores and trains silently without ruining a pub.
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Old Mudgie once wrote that there was no difference between reading a paper on a laptop/tablet and reading a print copy. I think he was right.
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When it comes to idiots hollering into their phones or playing loud music/games on them, I was with Mr Smith. However, how many of us have been having a pleasant conversation in a pub and had a quick look at Wiki to check a fact? Or gone in alone and sat quietly reading the news? After all, the Guinness Book of Records was originally intended to settle pub arguments and online info sources are merely a modern extension of this.
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That narrow street in photo 4 is a dead ringer for Denmark St in Bristol. I did a proper double take.
For all Sir Humphrey’s oddities, he knew what a decent pub was. I’ve spent pleasant times in the King William, Boot, Princess Louise, Nellie’s, Cheshire Cheese among others. I hope at least that part of his legacy continues.
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The last time me I was in the Cock almost everyone was using a phone or a tablet. Let’s hope this extends to the rest of the Sams pubs after a respectful period of mourning.
Humphrey may have had some good points, but sacking people on the spot for trivial matters, throwing them on the scrap heap, and closing a community facility on a whim is not acceptable behaviour, in any century.
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I agree, Will, but he was a Yorkshireman, and quite a few would behave exactly like that if only they could, perhaps.
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You may have meant that light-heartedly, but I think you slander quite a large number of people in Yorkshire with that sweeping generalisation.
The sort of power that Humphrey had would no doubt go to many people’s heads, but that’s no reason for holding back on criticism of those who actually have the power and abuse it so horrendously – and now I’m not just talking about people called Smith.
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The two Yorkshiremen and a Yorkshirewoman I know best – my sons and daughter – are – so far – not corrupted by such power.
However, I do know of a buy-to-let landlord in Halifax, who makes a point of collecting his rents door-to-door in person, “because it makes him feel good”…
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…and I’ll give a name next time.
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