Special Report: The pub and the pandemic: Regulars, suppliers, owner adrift in lockdown

Pub landlord Tadgh Barry stands outside The Greenwich Pensioner pub, which was closed to slow the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), London, Britain, May 21, 2020. Picture taken May 21, 2020. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez

LONDON (Reuters) - When the Greenwich Pensioner was built in 1827, the girl who would become Queen Victoria was 8 years old and John Quincy Adams was serving as the sixth president of the United States.

Since then, the pub in London's East End has survived two world wars, including bombings that flattened the houses next to it, four cholera epidemics and the devastating Spanish flu pandemic of a century ago.