Second World War During the
Second World War, Allied airmen, who drank and socialised at The Eagle, used wax candles, petrol lighters and lipstick to write their names, squadron numbers and other doodles onto the ceiling of the rear bar. The tradition is believed to have been started by
RAF Flight Sergeant P. E. Turner, who climbed up on the table one night to burn his squadron number on the ceiling. The graffiti, in what is now known as the "RAF Bar", The anecdote is related in Watson's book
The Double Helix, and is commemorated on a
blue plaque next to the entrance, and two plaques in the middle room by the table where Crick and Watson lunched regularly. Today the pub serves a special ale to commemorate the discovery, dubbed "Eagle's DNA". The blue plaque on the exterior wall was unveiled in 2003. From 2017,
Rosalind Franklin's name was often added in graffiti and removed. In 2023 the plaque was replaced with one that mentioned Franklin and
Maurice Wilkins. The original plaque is in the
Whipple Museum of the History of Science on Free School Lane. Also in 1953 Watson and Crick worked over lunch in The Eagle to draw up a list of the 20 canonical
amino acids. This has been a very influential rubric for molecular biology, and was a key development in understanding the protein-coding nature of DNA. == References ==