Time Walk
A Pub, a Warehouse and a Mural
Two days after the Euro 2020 final, a mural of Southgate, Kane and Sterling was unveiled here. Vinegar Yard turns off Bermondsey Street into a tight space where the Horseshoe Inn fills most of the view ahead. A warehouse shares the yard with it.
Nothing in the yard hints at what its name recalls: a trade once carried on here. That trade is where the story of the name begins.
Name Origin
A Trade Preserved in a Name
Vinegar Yard is named after vinegar distilleries once located here. According to Sheila Fairfield's The Streets of London: A Dictionary of the Names and Their Origins (1983), it was this trade, carried on at the site, that gave the yard its lasting name. The sources used here do not explain more about the distilleries themselves.
History
Warehouses in the Shadow of a Horseshoe
The Horseshoe Inn is the single most important sight along Vinegar Yard. Every view down the yard is framed by its presence, making the pub the visual anchor of the whole space.
Beside it stands a four-storey warehouse that forms part of the wider Melior Place group of buildings.
Culture
Three Lions in the Yard
Today
A Yard Still Finding Its Footing
The four-storey warehouse at 9-17 Vinegar Yard remains in need of renovation.
The car parking areas beside the old warehouse at 9-17 Vinegar Yard are considered detrimental to the setting of the Horseshoe Inn next door.
On the Map
Vinegar Yard Then & Now
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is it called Vinegar Yard?
Vinegar Yard takes its name from vinegar distilleries once located here, according to Sheila Fairfield's The Streets of London: A Dictionary of the Names and Their Origins (1983). The sources used here do not explain more about the trade itself.
What is Vinegar Yard known for?
Today the yard is known chiefly for the Horseshoe Inn, which dominates every view along it, and for a 2021 mural by the street artist MurWalls showing Gareth Southgate, Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling, unveiled two days after the Euro 2020 final.
What buildings stand in Vinegar Yard?
A four-storey warehouse at 9-17 Vinegar Yard, part of the wider Melior Place group and in need of renovation, stands beside the Horseshoe Inn.