Historical Info
A ‘beer shop’ since 1848
The Harlequin is in a charming terrace of houses, built in 1822–4. The earliest record we can find of a pub here is 1848 when John Gray is listed in the rent books as running a ‘beer shop’.
Pre Pub
Historic records show that the shopkeepers and trades at work in Arlington Way changed around pretty frequently. In the years before the pub, the house had been home to James Hoare, a baker (1841) and Robert Cruttwell, a lithographer and printer (1845). As well as shops, early businesses in the street included gem-cutting and ivory-working.
Where does the name originate?
The pub’s name reflects the 19th-century heyday of early English pantomime when the great comic actor Joseph Grimaldi was the star performer at Sadler’s Wells Theatre next door.
Joseph Grimaldi
In the early 1800s, he expanded the role of Clown in the harlequinade that formed part of British pantomimes, notably at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Sadler’s Wells and Covent Garden theatres. Grimaldi died before the pub opened so sadly we cannot claim him as a former customer but you can find his farewell speech framed inside The Harlequin.
The pub Frontage
The pilastered front, that still survives today, dates from 1894. This replaced the bowed glazed shopfront that was originally common to all the houses in the terrace. Only one of these remains, next door to The Harlequin at No 26.
The Hatton Garden safe deposit burglary
A more recent and notorious resident of the Harlequin was Terry Perkins a member of the infamous Hatton Garden “hole in the wall” gang who lived for a while with the landlady in the upstairs flat! The gang used to meet at The Harlequin to plan earlier jobs.
The Harlequin
The character of Harlequin – or ‘Arlecchino’ – originated in the Commedia dell’arte, the improvised theatre of 16th-century Italy. He was a wily and unscrupulous servant whose clothes were covered in patches.
His face was covered with a black half-mask which also had a bushy moustache and whiskery beard. Through the centuries, Harlequin’s costume became increasingly stylised, and the tatty patches became a regular diamond pattern.
The plays involved a great deal of physical humour and this aspect of the characters was carried through to the British counterparts of the 18th and 19th centuries. An actor playing Harlequin had to be an acrobat as well as an actor. Some of the famous Harlequins of the past, such as Tom Ellar, did themselves permanent physical damage from playing the part, as did Joseph Grimaldi.
Another attribute of Harlequin is his ability to do magic. The French version of the character could turn himself into different people. The English Harlequin of early pantomime could transform the things around him by hitting them with his magic bat or ‘slapstick’.
