Venue: Yorkshire Stingo
Town: London, GB

The Yorkshire Stingo was a public house in Marylebone, London in the 18th to mid-20th century. Its name derived from the custom for Yorkshiremen in London to gather at the pub and its adjoining pleasure gardens on the first three days of May each year. In May 1808 it was reported that over 20,000 people gathered there, drinking strong ale, and playing football and other 'rustic Yorkshire sports'. The Stingo part of its name comes from a fashionable 18th century slang word for strong or old ale. The term is possibly derived from the sharp, or "stinging" flavour of a well-matured beer. The pub served as a significant landmark just outside Central London. Located on the south side of the Marylebone Road, it was a rural location when first built, before the construction of the New Road. A bowling green and pleasure gardens had been added in the 18th century. An admittance charge was made, redeemable with the waiters, as a method of preventing those with no money from enjoying the facilities. In 1786 the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor used the Stingo as one of the centres for distributing alms. The pub had a connection with important developments in London's infrastructure and transport. When the Paddington branch of the Grand Union Canal opened in July 1801, a procession led by the Buckinghamshire Band walked from Paddington Basin to the Yorkshire Stingo for dinner and a convivial evening. In 1829 George Shillibeer operated London's first horse-drawn omnibus service from the Stingo to the Bank of England. His name is commemorated in the nearby Shillibeer Place. In the 1830s the Yorkshire Stingo pleasure gardens attracted crowds of spectators to witness the ascent of hot air balloons, including balloonist Margaret Graham on 17 May 1837. Three months later, on 14 August, a balloon launched at the Stingo took part in a spectacle to have three hot air balloons visible in the skies above London at the same time. The other two balloons were launched from the Rosem