Clive James named his second book of literary criticism (At the Pillars of Hercules) after it, apparently because that was where most of the pieces within it were commissioned, delivered or written.

[citation needed] The critic James Wood includes an anecdote set in the pub in his study The Irresponsible Self: On Laughter and the Novel (2004): One London lunchtime, many years ago, the late poet and editor Ian Hamilton was sitting at his usual table in a Soho pub called the Pillars of Hercules.

A pale, haggard poet entered, and Hamilton offered him a chair and a glass of something.

But Hamilton, narrowing his eyes, responded to this feebleness in a tone of weary stoicism, and said in a quiet, hard voice, "Well, none of us likes it.

"[3]The pub closed on 24 February 2018,[4] reopening later in the year as Bar Hercules under new owners Be At One.