2-692-752 - Historic England Archive/Heritage Images

Tabard or Talbot Inn, Talbot Yard, Southwark, London, c1870-c1873. A view of the courtyard with a wagon in the foreground and a group of people. The Tabard was an established inn during the Middle Ages and features in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, written in the late 14th century. The pilgims met here before setting out on their journey to Canterbury Cathedral. The inn burnt down in 1676 and it is the rebuilt one (which may be based on the original building) that is pictured here. As a coaching inn it suffered from the coming of the railways. Renamed the Talbot Inn, the buildings around the courtyard were used as storerooms in the 19th century, but it was sold in 1873 and demolished shortly afterwards.