This week, we explore the life of Norman Balon, the self-proclaimed “rudest landlord in Britain”, who presided over the Coach and Horses in Soho for more than fifty years. Balon turned insults, arguments and the occasional eviction into an art form, becoming as much an attraction as the pub itself.

Along the way, we ask why the British are so fond of formidable pub landlords and revisit the raffish Soho of the 1960s, 70s and 80s. The Coach and Horses attracted everyone from Francis Bacon, Peter O’Toole and Jeffrey Bernard to journalists, writers, gamblers and criminals.

Through Balon and his unruly clientele, we tell the story of a vanished Soho—and of the landlord who ruled one of its most celebrated drinking dens.