Spitalfields · Tower Hamlets
The Golden Heart
The Young British Artists' local, opposite the old Spitalfields fruit market
- Address110 Commercial Street, Spitalfields, London, E1 6LZ
- Websiteinstagram.com/thegoldenheartpub
- OwnershipIndependent pub
About The Golden Heart
An inter-war corner pub facing the old Spitalfields fruit and vegetable market, famous as the local of the Young British Artists generation under landlady Sandra Esquilant.
Built between the wars in a confident, listed Truman's pub design, the Golden Heart stands directly opposite the handsome Victorian market hall of Old Spitalfields Market, and for two decades from the early 1990s it became one of London's most storied artists' pubs. Under landlady Sandra Esquilant, who ran the pub for around twenty-five years until her retirement, it was adopted as an unofficial clubhouse by the Young British Artists as the group rose to prominence, with Tracey Emin, Gilbert & George, Damien Hirst and Sarah Lucas among the regulars who drank there through the Britart years, drawn as much by Esquilant's welcome as by the pub's position at the heart of the emerging Spitalfields gallery scene. It keeps its inter-war character largely intact today, still trading as an independent free house rather than a themed heritage attraction, and remains a fixture for the market-day crowds and gallery-goers who pass through Commercial Street.
On tap
Standard cask ales and lagers with a solid wine list
Food
No kitchen — a drinking pub rather than a dining destination
More pubs in Spitalfields
- The Pride of SpitalfieldsA tiny backstreet boozer round the corner from Brick Lane, wallpapered in rugby memorabilia
- The CulpeperA rooftop greenhouse growing its own herbs above a Commercial Street pub with rooms