This Westminster pub is a recurring location in the Strike books and appears in The Ink Black Heart and The Running Grave.

In The Ink Black Heart

After Strike and Robin have been to New Scotland Yard, Strike suggests a drink and something to eat well away from the area to avoid being overheard by any police.

They choose the St Stephen’s Tavern, “a small, dark Victorian pub which lay directly opposite Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament” (The Ink Black Heart, Chapter 90).

The St Stephen’s Tavern originally opened in 1875 and has been visited by many famous political figures over the years, including Prime Ministers Churchill, Baldwin and Macmillan, and it is still frequented by current members of Parliament.

“Robin found a corner table at the back of the pub and five minutes later Strike set down a pint of Badger and a glass of wine, eased himself with some difficulty around the small, iron-footed table and lowered himself onto the green leather bench beneath the mirrored panels” (The Ink Black Heart, Chapter 90).

Strike asks Robin’s advice on what to order that doesn’t have too many calories, and she suggests the veggie burger, without the chips, which she also orders for herself. The current menu for the pub does include a veggie burger, which is listed as having 850 calories (without the chips). The double cheeseburger with fries comes in at 1,600 calories, so it is a step in the right direction for Strike’s diet.

The tavern is one of several pubs near the Houses of Parliament to have a division bell, which rings to warn MPs they only have a few minutes to get back to the House to vote. In this picture, you can see the bell on the wall under the clock – it looks like an old-fashioned radio.

In The Running Grave

In Chapter 51, Strike meets Ryan Murphy here for a drink and a chat. Strike takes his pint to the same corner table where Robin and himself had sat, “half-aware of a vaguely territorial instinct.”

Ryan arrives with a folder under his arm, which Strike is pleased to see, even if he isn’t too pleased to see the handsome CID officer. Strike, internally, finds satisfaction that he knows Robin “bloody well” (more than Murphy does), and, though not having learnt much about guns at Chapman Farm, he felt it was a twenty minutes well spent.

In The Hallmarked Man

Strike is on a surveillance job in Westminster when a terrorist attack takes place on Westminster Bridge. His military instinct kicks in and he starts heading towards the gunshots as though he was still in the SIB. He is told by the police to go inside the pub. He talks to Robin on the phone whilst in St Stephen’s Tavern.

The St Stephen’s Tavern’s website is here:  www.ststephenstavern.co.uk/

You can find the St Stephen’s Tavern on the map below:

Address: 10 Bridge Street, London SW1A 2JR