3-101-123 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

George Inn Yard, Southwark, c1881. Coaching inn on Borough High Street in south London, established in the medieval period. It is the only surviving galleried London coaching inn. The pub was formerly known as the George and Dragon, named after the legend of Saint George and the Dragon. It is possible that it was used for Elizabethan theatrical productions (Inn-yard theatre). The Great Northern Railway used the George as a depot and pulled down two of its fronts to build warehousing. Now just the south face remains. 'The comfortable Inn has evidently been a good deal modernised since its re-building after the fire of 1676. Its large courtyard is now used as a railway goods office. The east and north galleries have been so boarded up as to lose all their old character.' Description by Alfred Marks.