Masters at Temple Bar Gate
Mr Pepys and the Master
Mr Pepys reads his diary to the crowds
Ending our walk in St Olave's church where Mr and Mrs Pepys are interred

Pepys' Day 2026 and a connection to pipe smoking

4th September 2026

Temple Bar and the Architects' Hall

Today, 4 September, the City of London celebrated the great diarist — and undeniable hedonist — Samuel Pepys MA FRS (1633–1703), a former Master of the Clothworkers’ Company. (Strictly speaking, Pepys was never a Freeman or Liveryman, yet he was elected Master in 1677 — presumably because the Clothworkers hoped that his considerable royal and political connections might prove useful!)

Masters and a couple of Ale Conners gathered at Temple Bar in robes and badges to mark the beginning of the day’s celebrations, which included the ceremonial opening of the gates by the Honourable Artillery Company’s splendid Pikemen and Musketeers. The assembled crowd of tourists and City workers was then entertained by a reading from the diaries, delivered by a magnificently be-wigged “Mr Pepys”, before many of us set off on Pepys-themed walks around the City.

I joined a walk which headed east to landmarks associated with Pepys’s later life as Comptroller of the Royal Navy, while Past Master Henry Tuck, Hon Freeman Carolyn Tuck and Past Master Charles Miller headed west to explore the places associated with his earlier years. Past Master Miller ended up lunching at the famous Cheshire Cheese; Past Master Tuck took lunch in the Crypt at St Paul's Cathedral. I had no time for lunch, but that's a Master's life!

After a short respite in the City of London Club, where the building next door is being noisily and bone-shakingly re-developed, we joined other Masters, Hall Trustees and friends for the Pepys Day Dinner at Architects’ Hall. Drinks were served in the beautiful little room over Temple Bar. Designed by Pepys’s great friend, Sir Christopher Wren, this last surviving City gateway once stood at the junction of Fleet Street and the Strand, and was a particularly appropriate setting in which to raise a glass to the great diarist.

Dinner was splendid: thirty people gathered in the tiny hall to enjoy a themed menu of King Charles II leek and potato soup, venison pie, roasted pears and — of course — Parmesan cheese with honey.

Pepys is often best remembered for burying his wine and Parmesan in the garden on 4 September 1666 to save them from the rapidly advancing Great Fire.

4 September 1666

“Up by break of day to get away the remainder of my things; which I did by a lighter at the Iron gate and my hands so few, that it was the afternoon before we could get them all away ... And in the evening Sir W. Pen [William Penn] and I did dig another [hole], and put our wine in it; and I my Parmazan cheese, as well as my wine and some other things.”

Pepys' Day was founded in 2024 by the then Lord Mayor, Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli, who continues to champion the occasion and attends all its special events. He gave a short and very amusing speech at the dinner, explaining why he had initiated Pepys' Day and expressing the hope that, in time, it might become as important a fixture in the City calendar as Bloomsday in Dublin.

We then enjoyed further readings by “Mr Pepys”, but I could not resist getting to my feet to remind the diners of an earlier — and, for us, particularly relevant — entry in his diary.

8 June 1661

“... I went to the Theatre and there saw ... a most admirable play and well acted, but too much prophane and abusive. From thence, meeting Mr. Creed at the door, he and I went to the tobacco shop under Temple Bar gate, and there went up to the top of the house and there sat drinking Lambeth ale a good while. Then away home … and to bed.”

Theatres, wine, Parmesan cheese, tobacco and Lambeth ale — Samuel Pepys may have been a naval accountant and one of history’s great diarists, but he certainly understood life’s priorities.