ASSETS OF COMMUNITY VALUE IN SUTTON
The London Borough of Sutton has listed the Robin Hood in West Street, Sutton (SM1 1SH) as an Asset of Community Value (ACV), following a campaign led by James Elliott. This is one of the tenanted pubs that Young’s recently sold in a block to Punch. It has been the centre for many local groups over the years and the listing is a significant achievement because it is only the second such listing in the borough and, so far, the only pub.
More recently, another local group has prepared an ACV application covering the Jack & Jill in Longlands Avenue, Coulsdon (CR5 2QJ), in the Clockhouse area on the outer edges on the borough. The pub has recently been acquired by developers, although no planning application has been submitted to date. We hope that Ramona Langlais and her group are also successful with their application to the council.
David Lands
✖ I’m pleased to report that, after a closure for substantial building alterations which coincided with last year’s lockdowns, the privately owned Bricklayers Arms in Putney (SW15 1DD) has reopened. The pub, twice a winner of CAMRA’s Greater London Pub of the Year award, has new toilets and an enclosed patio area but the historic interior has been largely retained. The beer range is varied and usually includes something from the Timothy Taylor range.
✖ The British Lion, latterly P J Maloney’s, in Thessaly Road, South Lambeth (SW8 4XX) was a handsome building and its beer was once good enough to warrant inclusion in the Good Beer Guide in 1998 and 2000. I’m not sure which pub company sold it but it was demolished in 2015 for a housing development, for which planning permission was duly obtained. But nothing happened… If you go there today you will find a heavily overgrown site surrounded by hoardings. Somewhat poignantly, the frame of the former pub sign is still standing. It was bad enough that a pub was demolished but then to leave the site untouched for six years adds insult to injury. Our planning system should not allow this to happen. A new proposal has recently been put to Wandsworth Council. We will see what happens.
✖ The Corner Pin in Tottenham (N17 0AG) has reopened. It remains owned by Tottenham Hotspur FC but it is being operated by their ‘beer partners’, Beavertown. It has one handpump, selling rotating guest ales. The external colour scheme is, for want of a better word, distinctive.
✖ To update the report in the last edition, the situation with the Duchess of Kent in Islington (N1 8PR) has become more complicated. Happily, Islington Council refused the application to change its planning use class from public house (Sui Generis) to Use Class E for a cafe and juice bar, thus avoiding the consequential permitted development rights. However, it was subsequently discovered that the first and second floors had already been turned into residential accommodation of sorts without permission. On 30 July, the owners submitted the following application: ‘Retrospective change of use of first & second floors of former public house (sui generis) to apart-hotel (Use Class C1)’. Use Class C1 covers ‘hotels, guest houses and boarding houses’. A decision is awaited.
✖ It has been reported, sadly, that the Grade II-listed Ealing Park Tavern in South Ealing (W5 4RL) is now boarded up. It is understood that the last operators, the ETM Group, returned the keys to the freeholders. This is a very handsome pub, built for the Royal Brewery in 1885 to a design by E W Lacey. Its loss would be disastrous.
✖ After a four year fight against plans to demolish the Glamorgan in East Croydon, the Save the Glamorgan campaign scored an initial victory when the current owners gave up on their intention to redevelop the site into flats and decided to sell the freehold instead. The campaign duly launched a new community interest company, named Glamorgan Phoenix, in order to trigger the six month moratorium permitted by the ACV listing, during which the owners cannot sell except to a local community backed organisation. This ends on 11 December 2021. The campaign has also secured significant help and advice from the Plunkett Foundation, who are assisting in identifying the optimal way of attracting investment and obtaining grants and other funding in order to finance the campaign’s bid for the freehold. Two local breweries have continued to express their interest in and support for the bid. Further discussions with a business advisor from the Plunkett Foundation and the breweries are ongoing, and the Save the Glamorgan campaign will decide on its approach at a meeting on 21 October, which will be its fourth AGM. The objective is to be able to submit a bid for the freehold, backed with a realistic business plan, by 11 December.
David Lands
✖ There has been a change at the Grand Junction Arms, which stands canalside in Harlesden (NW10 7AD), but not the one that might have been expected. On 27 August, the tenants announced on social media that they were leaving the pub on 13 September. Although it is a tenancy, the pub was excluded from the sale of the Ram Pub Company; it is not known if the two events were connected. Young’s now intend to operate it as a managed house.
✖ The King Charles I in Kings Cross (N1 9BL) has been listed by Islington Council as an Asset of Community Value. The nomination was made by the group of regulars who, in 2015, managed to raise £70,000 to buy the lease of the pub and who are currently running it. A spokesman for the group told the Islington Gazette that the application was not just to safeguard the site’s future as a pub but was also “intended to acknowledge the loyalty and dedication of the staff and customers who make this wonderful and unassuming local treasure what it is.” A celebration, including the unveiling of a plaque, was planned for the end of September.
✖ There is promising news about the Old White Bear in Hampstead (NW3 1LJ). According to reports in two local papers, the Ham & High and the Camden New Journal (both 1 September), the pub, which has been closed since 2014, will be open again before Christmas. Sam Moss, who already operates the nearby Haverstock Tavern, has taken a lease on the ground floor and basement from owners, the Max Barney Pub Company and renovation work was in progress in early September. Mr Moss, who also owns the Leeds Brewery, told the Ham & High, “We want to reopen it as a pub at the heart of the community, a proper boozer. We’ll do some food as well but it’s going to be very, very much a pub.” This is a well deserved triumph for the local community, in particular the Save the Old White Bear campaign, who have defended the pub against development plans and other odd events for seven years. This includes obtaining and recently renewing its Asset of Community Value listing. They never gave up hope of getting their pub back and it is looking as if it was worth the effort.
✖ Somewhat belatedly, a significant part of the history of the Prince of Wales in Summerstown (SW17 0NT) was acknowledged in September. Sadly, the pub, a former Young’s house (and regular Good Beer Guide entry) has been a Tesco Express outlet since 2013. Marc Bolan, of T Rex fame, grew up nearby and the pub was one of his favourite busking spots. A plaque, organised by local historian Geoff Simmons, was unveiled as part of an event called ‘Marc Bolan’s Teenage Dream’. It was however staged at the nearby By The Horns Brewery taproom because the building stands on a busy corner. I can’t help thinking that a better tribute would have been to turn the building back into a pub, especially as there is a shortage of them in the area now with the opening of AFC Wimbledon’s new stadium.
If you are interested in the pubs in this area, see the book review on page 38.
✖ Colin Price reports that the St Bart’s Brewery in West Smithfield (EC1A 9DY) has been renamed Balfour at St Bart’s. The pub is now featuring its range of English wines, many of which come from the Balfour winery at the Hush Heath Estate in Kent. They claim to have the most extensive range of English wines available by the glass in London. Sadly, the range of cask beers on sale has, as a result, been reduced from four to one. Despite its name and the brewing equipment on display, no brewing took place here. My thanks to Colin for this and many other items of pub information.
✖ CAMRA’s National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors bulletin for July reported that the splendidly ornate Grade II listed Warrington Hotel in Maida Vale (W9 1EH) reopened on 29 July.
✖ The White Swan (formerly the Mucky Duck) in Fetter Lane (EC4A 1ES), which is operated by the ETM Group, is either going to be rebuilt as part of a new 13 storey development or it is going to be left as it is, with the existing 1950s building redeveloped around it. The City of London have given planning permission for both options. That said, the developers who have been granted the permissions have yet to actually buy the site. Our planning system sometimes moves in mysterious ways.