Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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There were several taverns called the Mitre in the 1660s and it is sometimes impossible to work out which one Pepys is referring to. The one that he visited most often was in Fenchurch street, owned by Dan Rawlinson, where Pepys could get chine of beef and marrow bones, and which was just around the corner from his home and his office.
In contrast, this Mitre in Cheapside would have been at least a 20-minute walk away and up a hill. However, he probably went to it on numerous occasions because it was one of the oldest and best-known taverns in London.
The first official reference to it is to be found in the records of the Pewterers Company in 1461, and we know from that that it originally belonged to the hospital of St Thomas of Acon, which was founded in memory of St Thomas a Beckett. It joined on to the hospital on one side and the church of St Mary Colechurch on the other (at the southwest corner of Old Jewry). Indeed, the churchwardens
The Mitre, Glyn suggests Cheapside…
Maybe it could be this one mentioned under Curious Advertisements in the Book of Days..
‘At the “Miter,” near the west end of St. Paul’s, is to be seen a rare collection of curiosityes, much resorted to, and admired by persons of great learning and quality; amongst which a choyce Egyptian Mummy, with hieroglyphics; the Ant-Beare of Brazil; a Femora; a Torpedo; the huge Thigh-bone of a Gyant; a Moon-Fish; a Tropick-bird, &c.’—1664.