South Street was originally a trackway by the River Rom. By the 1850s, it was a busy town-centre street. The county court was a feature of the street, until its demolition in 1936. This pub stands on the site of the court house and takes its name from a poem by Francis Quarles, Romford’s very own poet. In his poem On the World, published in 1635, he wrote that ‘The World’s an Inn: and I her guest’.