Timetable

This printed timetable lists the destinations and departure times of coaches operated by the proprietor William Horne, General Coach Office, Cross Keys Inn, Wood Street, Cheapside. The notice states that the Cross Keys Inn is the 'only Inn in London from whence Carriages set out to all the principal Towns and Fashionable Places of Resort in the Kingdom....' Destinations listed on the timetable include York, Southampton, Manchester, Brighton, Bath and Paris. Each coach had its own name and ran a particular route. The Telegraph, for example, ran to Southampton whilst The Regulator ran to Bath. Such timetables would be pasted in public places as well as the outside of the Inn to advertise the services of the various coaching inns.
Until the expansion of the railway system in the second half of the 19th century, coaches and horses were the main method of transporting passengers between London and the rest of Britain. Regular services ran from fixed points, usually an inn where passengers could obtain board and refreshment and horses could be stabled, fed and watered.

The Cross Keys appears in 'Great Expectations' by Charles Dickens.