The Flask, Highgate

It is said that the highwayman Dick Turpin hid from the law in the stables there, that the artist William Hogarth drank at the bar and even that Karl Marx was a customer.

[5][6] It was also reported in 1736 a 64 year-old man, accompanied by a hairdresser, ran from the Bull's Head in St Giles to The Flask in just 45 minutes, "To the Surprize of every Body who was present".

[8] The pub was used in a Christmas 1995 television commercial for Carlsberg Lager, the 60-second film "Last Orders" opens at The Flask and shows two men drinking and laughing as the minutes fly by to closing time.

The subtitle asks ‘The best closing time in the world?’ before both of the men agree that it is as they hare off into the snow like excited children.

[10] In its modern incarnation, the ritual has been performed at The Flask by Hornsey Round Table for 49 years (as of 2019) to raise money for charity.