I found the info for this an old book called 'London Walks and Legends' by Mary Cathcart Borer. This book really does need reprinting.. it's an excellent read, and you might even want to get out of your chair and walk some of the walks. (it was Granada publ, ISBN 0 583 13308 8)
Why does the current fashion seem to be to change pub names. You can't even go to Nag's Head anymore, it's now 'O'Neil's Bar'.. "One and two halves to O'Neil's" doesn't sound quite the same.
This is the story behind the Camden Town pub, now for no particular reason called the World's End, but for the past 250 years it was called the Mother Red Cap.
The first Mother Red Cap (there were two) had a child at 15 by a man called Gipsy George. George was hanged at Tyburn for stealing sheep. She then took up with a man called Darby, who disappeared after a few months of drunken quarrelling and was never seen again. Then her parents were convicted of killing a girl by black magic and were hanged. She took up with a third lover call Picher, who before long was found in her oven, burnt to a cinder.
She was tried for his murder but was acquitted, after a witness declared that he often took refuge in the oven to escape her cruel tongue, and could well have been burnt by accident. She then became something of a recluse, but was occasionally seen in the lanes and hedgerows, collecting herbs and berries.
During the Civil War, she gave shelter to a fugitive, who knocked at her door one night begging for shelter. He had money and stopped with her for a few years, even though, from time to time, they were heard quarrelling. When he died there were whispers that she had poisoned him, but nothing was ever proved.
When she was seen, she was always wearing an ugly grey cap and a grey shawl, and her huge black cat was never far behind. By this time people were convinced she was a witch, and most were too frightened to go near her, her only visitors being Moll Cut-purse the highwaywoman and a few brave souls wanting their fortunes told or to be cured of some ill by one of her strange brews.
The night she died, people declared that they saw the devil walk into her cottage, but no one saw him come out. She was found the next morning, sitting by a pot on the fire, her cat beside her. When the cat was given some of the contents to drink, it's hair fell off in two hours, and the cat died soon after.
The second Mother Red Cap was far more cheerful. She turned the place into an inn and brewed a rather potent ale there.
Last updated: 4 Apr 97