All readers – not just CAMRA members – are invited to submit letters for publication to London Drinker but please remember that the letters column is intended for debate and constructive criticism. The editor reserves the right not to print any contributions that are otherwise. Please e-mail letters to ldnews.hedger@gmail.com. Please state ‘letter for publication’ so as to avoid any misunderstandings.
Memories of Mortlake
Your article in the August/September edition, ‘Farewell to the Stag Brewery’ (page 28) reminded me of a visit I made to Mortlake in 1975. I had just become interested in real ale and had got a list of Young’s pubs from my local Young’s pub, the Britannia in Barking. On one Friday lunchtime I was on a train passing through Mortlake, so I decided to get off and try the Young’s pub, the Jolly Gardeners. When I got there, I found that most of the drinkers were actually Watney’s workers wearing Watney’s branded overalls. At the time Paul Cook, who later went on to be the drummer in the punk rock group the Sex Pistols, was working as an apprentice electrician at the Stag Brewery so possibly was in the pub. As a 135-er I know puts it, “Paul Cook worked for Watney’s, then he became a punk rock drummer. I don’t know which is worse.”
Colin Price
Editor’s note: younger readers may not have heard of the ‘135 Association’. For some time, there were 135 Young’s pubs, give or take one or two. As Colin says, the company produced a little three-fold list of its pubs called ‘Real Draught Beer and Where to Find It’. If within a year you had a drink in them all and had your list ticked, you were awarded a special tie and/or a pin of ale. Although chaired by John Young at one point, the Association itself was independent of the company. It was wound up early this century although it is understood that there are still occasional reunions.