The Tavern was originally a coffee house – the Queen Charlotte recorded in 1822, but it became a pub and probably acquired the name of The Fitzroy Tavern by 1856.  By 1895 this area was the home of many Germans – Charlotte Street was sometimes called Charlottestrassen, and the pub was run by landlord Heinrich Hundertmark and as a result nicknamed the ‘The Hundred Marks”.  The current building dates back to a rebuilding in 1897.  The Germans in London were treated badly during World War I – many left, and by 1919 the pub was taken over by a new landlord – Judah ‘Pop’ Kleinfield – a Polish Jew who had emigrated to London in the 1880s (apparently arriving with four pennies in his pocket). He became a master tailor on Savile Row, and then when he retired took on the Fitzroy accompanied by his 15-year old daughter Annie (who kept the books and dealt with the paperwork, and later took over managing the pub with her future husband Charles Allchild). The family made the pub into one of the most successful in the area.

The area we call Fitzrovia is named after the Fitzroy Tavern, which was one of the main social hubs of the area from after the First World War.  It became the haunt of the literary and artistic crowd – artists associated with the Tavern in the past included Augustus John, Nina Hamnett, Walter Sickert and Jacob Epstein, but the Tavern also attracted many others including Dylan Thomas, George Orwell, Richard Attenborough, Michael Bentine, Albert Pierrepoint (the hangman), Aleister Crowley (of Black Magic fame), Michael Bentine, Kenneth Williams, Tommy Cooper