Maintaining the Standard

I was reminded recently that the London Evening Standard newspaper ran its own Pub of the Year competition for 37 years, from 1970 to 2006. A shortlist of ten pubs was nominated by readers and the winner was then chosen by a selection panel. The panel, made up of various celebrities, was led, until his sadly early death in 1996, by Willie Rushton of Private Eye and I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue fame. The Standard’s then drinks writer, Andrew Jefford, was also heavily involved. Towards the end, the selection process was changed to readers being invited to vote by text message. The Pub of the Year competition was supplemented by a Bar of the Year Award from 1982. The pub competition has, I believe, been restarted but I have not seen much about it.

The winners were given a substantial ceramic blue plaque to display on the exterior of the pub. It would be interesting to know how many are still in place. There were other awards given, such as the one outside the Alexandra in Wimbledon, but I don’t know what these were awarded for. Can any reader help there?

I thought that it might be interesting to look at what has happened to the winners. There was no award made in 1987 and the George in Borough High Street won twice (1994 and 1995) so 35 pubs in all won the award. Given the rate of attrition with London pubs, I was happily surprised to find that only one winning pub has closed. This was the Settle Inn (later the Rising Sun and Prince of Wales) in Battersea Bridge Road which won in 2001 when it was a Courage house. Despite a campaign by CAMRA’s South West London branch, it is now a Tesco’s site. One other pub, the then Clarence in Balham (the ultimate winner in 2006) is now Wolfgang’s Beer Haus; no real ale but at least it is still selling beer of sorts. Three others do not currently sell real ale. That said, I’m not sure that selling real ale was a criterion for the ES award.

The full list is published at the bottom but the current ownership of the 33 remaining pubs is split as follows:

• 9 Young’s

• 5 Greene King

• 4 Individual

• 4 Fuller’s

• 4 Ei Group (1 no real ale)

• 3 Sam Smith’s (2 no real ale)

• 2 M&B (Castle)

• 1 MoD (leased out)

• 1 Mosaic Pub and Dining

Nine of the pubs are Grade II-listed and one is Grade I.

I’m sure that many of the pubs will be well known to readers and I suspect that many of them now have a greater emphasis on food than when they won the award. As readers will know, CAMRA’s Greater London Region also runs a Pub of the Year competition which started in the early 1990s. Curiously, there is no overlap whatsoever. Not one pub features on both lists of winners.

The admittedly simplistic conclusion that I draw is that well established and well run pubs will survive.

Year	Pub Name (when award won)	Area	Address	P/Code	Operator #	Comments
2006	Clarence	Balham	90-92 Balham High Road	SW12 9AG	Individual	no real ale; Wolfgang’s Beer Haus since Feb 2019
2005	Morgan Arms	Mile End	43 Morgan Street	E3 5AA	Greene King
2004	Earl Spencer	Southfields	260-262 Merton Road	SW18 5JL	Ei Group
2003	Draper’s Arms	Islington	44 Barnsbury Street	N1 1ER	Individual	Grade II-listed
2002	Bedford	Balham	77 Bedford Hill	SW12 9HD	Six Cheers (Ei Group)	Grade II-listed
2001	Settle Inn	Battersea	186 Battersea Bridge Road	SW11 3AE	closed	Became Prince of Wales and Rising Sun; now a Tescos
2000	Cow Saloon Bar	Paddington	89 Westbourne Park Road	W2 5QH	Individual	Now just ‘The Cow’
1999	Churchill Arms	Kensington	119 Kensington Church Street	W8 7LN	Fuller’s
1998	Duke of Cambridge	Battersea	228 Battersea Bridge Road	SW11 3AA	Young’s
1997	White Swan	Twickenham	Riverside	TW1 3DN	Individual
1996	Trafalgar Tavern	Greenwich	Park Row	SE10 9NW	MoD (leased out)	Grade II-listed
1994	George Inn	Southwark	77 Borough High Street	SE1 1NH	Greene King	Grade I-listed; now just ‘The George’
1995	George Inn	as 1994	as 1994	as 1994	as 1994	as 1994
1993	Phoenix & Firkin	Southwark	Windsor Walk	SE5 8BB	M&B (Castle)	Denmark Hill Station
1992	Star Tavern	Westminster	6 Belgrave Mews West	SW1X 8HT	Fuller’s	Grade II-listed
1991	Ship	Wandsworth	41 Jews Row	SW18 1TB	Young’s
1990	White Horse	Parsons Green	1-3 Parsons Green	SW6 4UL	M&B (Castle)	ACV
1989	Scarsdale Arms	Kensington	23a Edwardes Square	W8 6HE	Fuller’s	now ‘Scarsdale Tavern’
1988	Anglesea Arms	South Kensington	15 Selwood Terrace	SW7 3QG	Greene King	Grade II-listed
1987	No Award	N/A
1986	Princess Louise	Holborn	208 High Holborn	WC1V 7EP	Samuel Smith	Grade II-listed
1985	Clifton	St Johns Wood	96 Clifton Hill	NW8 0JT	Individual	ACV
1984	Albert	Westminster	52 Victoria Street	SW1H 0NP	Greene King	Grade II-listed (originally Blue Coat Boy)
1983	Castle	Surbiton	108 King Charles Road	KT5 8QJ	Ei Group	no real ale
1982	Hand in Hand	Wimbledon	7 Crooked Billet	SW19 4RQ	Young’s
1981	Railway Bell	Norwood (Gipsy Hill)	14 Cawnpore Street	SE19 1PF	Young’s
1980	Rose of York	Richmond	Petersham Road	TW10 6UY	Sam Smith’s	no real ale (formerly Tudor Close)
1979	Royal Oak	New Malden	90 Coombe Road	KT3 4RD	Mosaic Pub and Dining
1978	Old Ship	Hammersmith	25 Upper Mall	W6 9TD	Young’s
1977	Angel	Bermondsey	101 Bermondsey Wall East	SE16 4NB	Samuel Smith	no real ale; Grade II-listed
1976	Orange Tree	Richmond	45 Kew Road	TW9 2NQ	Young’s
1975	Greyhound	Kensington	1 Kensington Square	W8 5EP	Greene King
1974	Flask	Highgate	77 Highgate West Hill	N6 6BU	Fuller’s	Grade II-listed; acquired from M&B in 2009
1973	Pied Bull	Streatham	498 Streatham High Road	SW16 3QB	Young’s	Now just ‘The Bull’
1972	Victoria	Bermondsey	68-70 Page’s Walk	SE1 4HL	Ei Group
1971	Duke of Cumberland	Parsons Green	235 New Kings Road	SW6 4XG	Young’s	Grade II-listed;now ‘Duke on the Green’
1970	Rose and Crown	Wimbledon	55 High Street (Village)	SW19 5BA	Young’s

# current, not necessarily when award won

Tony Hedger