The site of The Ship Anson in Portsmouth, home of the Royal Navy has been associated with pubs and ale houses since the 1600s. You've probably heard the expression 'to take the King's Shilling'. The Ship Anson pub is right next to where the expression originated. It seems one Louisa Walcott ran a pub called the London Tavern there. She dropped coins into her unwary customers' tankards. Traditionally, once they drank, they had taken the King's Shilling and were recruited into the Navy. According to some reports she recruited 26572 men into the Navy that way. The Luftwaffe put an end to the London Tavern in WWII. The beer garden of the older pub, the Ship Anson is where the London Tavern once stood. Though it too has a pub landlady, and though the Royal Navy is still very much in evidence here, you can down a pint without worries about recruitment.

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