Formerly ‘Grumpy Jack’s’ - home to a gruesome murder in 2011. Shanahan’s is a capacious pub that can be reached by the Coombe road or by meandering from Francis Street through a housing estate onto Hanover Street West, the latter route is the more worthy of quenching one’s thirst. It serves a tasty pint late into the night which is when we wandered in and managed a couple before last orders. We sat up at the long bar and ordered a twosome of stout. And as we sat there drinking our cold porter, Ella Fitzgerald sang a Cole Porter, which prompted an interesting discussion regarding the capabilities required to correctly identify a work of great literature. ‘Good authors too who once knew better words/now only use four-letter words writing prose/anything goes!’

Update as of 2019: Shanahan’s has closed. Since reopened as ‘Spitalfields’ bar and restaurant. One suspects they’ve gone gastritis. 

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