Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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1893 text
A place of entertainment within or adjoining Westminster Hall. It is called in “Hudibras,” “False Heaven, at the end of the Hall.” There were two other alehouses near Westminster Hall, called Hell and Purgatory.
Nor break his fast
In Heaven and Hell.
Ben Jonson’s Alchemist, act v. SC. 2.
Annotations
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In the medieval Palace of Westminster there were three rooms called
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One of three ancient alehouses abutting on Westminster Hall, which were in existence by 1485, and were originally prison cells for the Royal Courts (as stated above, the others were Purgatory and Hell). By Pepys time its main customers were lawyers’ clerks, as mentioned in Ben Jonson’s play “The Alchemist”.
It was pulled down in about 1741 when Westminster Bridge was being built and the nearby roads were being widened and moved. The Committee Rooms of the House of Commons now stand on this site.
Source: “One on Every Corner - The History of Some Westminster Pubs” by Westminster City Archives.