A riverside pub that floods with the tide. This watercolour captures The White Cross on Water Lane, Richmond, its three-storey brick facade, bay windows, and Doric portico rising beside the Thames.
 
Built in the 1820s or 1830s and extended in the late 19th century, the pub is Grade II listed and part of a historic riverside group that includes Richmond Bridge (1777). The entrance is reached by stone steps, a practical necessity, as the Thames regularly floods the lower floor during high tide.
 
Inside, a glazed island servery divides two side rooms, one on a mezzanine level, while a working fireplace sits unusually beneath a window. The pub takes its name from the Observant Friars, a Franciscan order whose insignia was a white cross and whose convent once stood on this site before its dissolution by Henry VIII in 1534. A stained-glass panel inside commemorates the friary. The pub has served Young's ales since 1869 and remains one of Richmond's most distinctive riverside landmarks.
 
Interesting facts...
 
The pub floods so regularly that staff keep wellies on hand for customers. The White Cross one is perhaps London's most famous "flooding pubs." The Thames rises around the building during high tide, sometimes reaching the bar area. The original pub on this site was called the Waterman's Arms, serving river travellers and watermen who plied the Thames. Remains of the friary may still exist in the pub's extensive cellars.
The fireplace beneath the window is one of only a tiny number still in use in Britain, an architectural curiosity. The pub was once known as Eel Pie House, reflecting its riverside location and the popularity of eel pies as a local delicacy. During the 1983 listing, Historic England noted the pub's importance as a surviving early-mid 19th century public house forming part of the historic riverside stretch.  The Doric portico entrance, reached by stone steps, was designed to keep customers above flood level.  The pub's flooding has become part of its identity, with visitors sometimes seen climbing onto furniture or wading through water to reach the bar. Often watching poor visitors who unknowingly park their car on the slipway and watch it slowly submerge into the Thames