How do you get into The Bancroft Speakeasy?
We have not confirmed it. The Bancroft Speakeasy is in the directory because it calls itself a speakeasy, and that is the whole of what we can stand behind about its door.
Drinks of the era
We have not seen this venue’s own list, so what follows is the period rather than the bar: Mary Pickford, El Presidente, and Hotel Nacional Special are all drinks of this era, and each links to its origin and its build.
Where The Bancroft Speakeasy sits
The Bancroft Speakeasy is in Berkeley, California, in Alameda County, in the West of the United States. The city sits inside the Bay Area metropolitan area.
Our directory currently lists two speakeasies and hidden bars in Berkeley — too few for a city guide of its own yet, so they sit on the California page until there are more.
Measured from the map pins, the closest of those to The Bancroft Speakeasy are Speak Easy Open Mic, about 1.9 km away.
California holds 173 listed venues in this directory. See them all on our California speakeasy guide.
Prohibition in California
California came under national prohibition on 17 January 1920, when the Eighteenth Amendment took effect and the Volstead Act defined an intoxicating beverage as anything above one half of one per cent alcohol — a threshold strict enough to close breweries that had expected to survive.
More on the period in our history of Prohibition in California.
What the newspapers recorded in California
Searching the Library of Congress run of California newspapers for speakeasy, blind pig and bootlegger across 1920 to 1933 returns dated pages anyone can open. These are from California:
- La prensa, March 6, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- Imperial Valley press, June 14, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- Imperial Valley press, October 18, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- Imperial Valley press, November 5, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
Planning a visit
You can reach The Bancroft Speakeasy on Facebook.
The address is 2284 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA 94704-1431. Open in Google Maps.
What we have confirmed
For The Bancroft Speakeasy we hold street address and social accounts. We do not yet hold telephone number, official website, opening hours, a published drinks list, an online booking link, or a listed-building record.
It is in the directory because its own name calls it a speakeasy.
Overture Maps carries this venue; OpenStreetMap has no matching record.
The source data classifies the premises as a bar.