Named after the local landowner William Berners, whose country seat was Newman Hall in Quendon, Essex, it's a small, narrow and cosy low-ceilinged pub, with a proper flagstone floor. Note the almost Dickensian covered alleyway to the left, once unlit and nicknamed Murderer's Alley. It is a surviving fragment of a fringe of the St. Giles' Rookery, once the most famous slum area in London. A beer-only licence lasted here until 1948 when wine was licensed to be sold, and finally a spirits licence was granted in 1960.

Under new management since February 2025 and this has seen the return of the upstairs pie room.