By Mike Pentelow

A pub is shown on this site on an 1832 map, and it is identified as the Masons Arms in an 1841 street directory. A sign on the side of the pub says that the first licensee was a Mr Charles Cotton. Devonshire Street was built under the direction of the architect John Nash. The street suffered a lot of bomb damage during the Second world War but the pub remained untouched.

According to a sign on the pub, next door at number 57 lived Forbes Winslow, founder of the British Hospital for Mental Disorders. Former residents also include the astronomer Sir John Herchel, and mathematician Charles Babbage inventor of a calculating machine. Babbage is considered to be the father of the modern computer.

This pub is featured on the Fitzrovia Crawl fitzrovia.org.uk/crawl