Ten Bells, London

Contains a fine example of Victorian pictorial tiling.

Named after the bells of nearby Christ Church, the Ten Bells is a four-storey Victorian corner pub with elegant fluted pillars on either side of its corner entrance, and a series of twelve urn-like finials on the roof. The faded Truman’s signage painted on the exterior is in danger of disappearing altogether.

Inside was originally split into three or possibly four small rooms, but today all partitions have gone, as have the frosted windows.  The interior earns its one-star status for its remarkable floor-to-ceiling wall tiles on two walls, dating from around 1900. These include large panels full of swirling blue and white foliage motifs and some lower areas containing raised floral designs. But the piece de resistance of the tiling is a large pictorial display on the north wall, bearing the title ’Spitalfields in ye Olden Time – Visiting a Weaver’s Shop’. It’s a delightful image of a street scene with a well-dressed young couple inspecting a length of cloth while other characters look on. The mural is signed ‘W B Simpson & Sons. 100 S. Martins Lane, LONDON’. Simpson’s created a great many tiling schemes in pubs during late Victorian times.

With a gimmicky eye on catching the tourist trade, the pub was renamed the Jack the Ripper between 1976 and 1988, on account of two of the victims allegedly having drunk in here.  In 2010 the small island bar, which had earlier been ripped out, was reinstated.