Formerly known as the George and Dragon, the pub is the only surviving galleried London coaching inn. The building is partly timber framed and the ground floor is divided into a number of connected bars. The Parliament Bar used to be a waiting room for passengers on coaches.
In 1677, the pub was rebuilt after a serious fire that destroyed most of medieval Southwark. In the nineteenth century, the Great Northern Railway used the George Inn as a depot and pulled down two of its fronts to build warehousing. Only the south face remains. The White Hart was immediately to the north and The Tabard (described in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales) immediately to the south. Both were demolished in the nineteenth century.
Charles Dickens visited and referred to it in both Little Dorrit and Our Mutual Friend.
The building is listed Grade I on the National Heritage List for England.
