Christopher Inn

The Christopher Inn is a former 18th century coaching inn. It was originally situated next to the College on Baldwin’s Bridge and was first mentioned between 1546 and 1548. Horace Walpole wrote in August 1746 ‘Lord how great I used to think anybody just landed at the Christopher’. However, the first inn was acquired from the Crown in 1842 by Eton College in exchange for some of their lands in London. The then headmaster, Dr. Hawtrey, strongly urged that no lease of it should be made because since the opening of the railway the Christopher had became “riotous and demoralizing” for the college boys, mainly by the behaviour of visitors. It was opened again as the “Christopher Tap” for senior boys who were allowed to drink beer, cider and have food there. The new Christopher Inn moved down the High Street to its present site and flourished as a Hotel with a coach house and stabling for 17 horses in the same year. The hotel hosted regular meetings of the Masonic Lodge of Instruction of Windsor Castle until 1902 when it became a public house and then was sold to Courage Brewery in 1962. The current owner, who still lives in Eton, bought it in 1973 and converted the derelict stables into rooms and opened the Peacock Restaurant as well as a popular jazz bar. There are now 34 rooms.