The claim
Beside the stairs from which the Mayflower is said to have set out in 1620, this Rotherhithe pub leans over the Thames on a timber jetty. Rebuilt in a mock-Tudor style in 1957 after bomb damage, it is often dated to a sixteenth-century inn called the Shippe, a descent Historic England does not support. Inside are dark settles, candlelight and a quirky licence to sell US and UK stamps.
What the records show
The c.1550 belongs to History Hit, whose page on the pub says it was established in 1550. The pub states no year of its own: its website calls itself the oldest pub on the River Thames and its history page reaches back only as far as the seafarers who bought a pint and a postage stamp here in the 1800s, when the house was the Spread Eagle and Crown. Historic England's Heritage Calling finds no continuity with 1550 — the earliest fabric is of the 1780s, and the house was rebuilt and renamed the Mayflower in the late 1950s. CAMRA dates the Shippe, the name the claim is usually hung on, to 1780, the same decade as that fabric rather than two centuries before it.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1550 | Claimed founding | The press |
| 1780 | First record of a drinking house here | Historic England |
What to look for inside
- Near the departure point of the Mayflower (1620)
- Licensed to sell both US and UK postage stamps
- 1957 'Tudor-style' interior by H. G. Clinch (CAMRA two-star)
- Riverside jetty terrace
Visiting
The Mayflower is in London, England, at 117 Rotherhithe Street, London SE16 4NF. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- heritagecalling.com/2025/09/25/what-is-the-oldest-historic-pub-in-london/
- camra.org.uk/pubs/mayflower-rotherhithe-158608
- www.historyhit.com/locations/the-mayflower/
- www.mayflowerpub.co.uk/history
- ratings.food.gov.uk/business/364223
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
Run this pub? There is a badge for it
Free to put on your own site, no permission needed. It shows what the pub claims and what the records support, and it changes when the data does.
How to use it, and how to change what it says — if you have a document we have not seen, we would like to read it.
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