Saturday 18 February 2023 saw CAMRA’s London Pubs Group visit five hostelries of note in the south east London districts of Bellingham, Honor Oak and Forest Hill.
The tour began at the Fellowship Inn, 10 Randlesdown Road, Bellingham. The pub is both Grade II listed and on CAMRA’s National Inventory of pub interiors of outstanding historic interest. The Fellowship Inn is an ‘improved’ public house built in 1923-24 by F G Newnham for Barclay Perkins and Co, primarily to serve the London County Council’s Bellingham Estate. The Bellingham Estate was built on land acquired in 1920 and planned as a self-sufficient residential area laid out to resemble a traditional village, embodying the planning ideals of the turn-of-the-century garden city movement. The housing was largely completed by 1923 and partly accommodated people displaced by slum clearance from Deptford and Bermondsey. Due to pressure from the temperance movement, the LCC was wary of building, or allowing brewers to build, pubs on their suburban estates and, at first, was determined to have no pubs on their developments. The Fellowship Inn would appear to be one of the earliest such built. The large LCC Becontree Estate in Dagenham, for example, was virtually pub-free (other than existing licences) until 1928. When it was eventually deemed that the provision of a pub was acceptable, those allowed were of the ‘improved’ design with community facilities such as halls, games rooms and refreshment rooms. They were referred to as ‘refreshment houses’.
The Fellowship’s design features two storeys, plus an attic and basement, all clad in a half-timbered ‘Brewer’s Tudor’ style. The pub was restored by a community housing trust in 2018-19, when the public bar (shown on the original plan as ‘public refreshment room’) was reopened, along with the saloon bar on the ground floor. The former retains a large entrance lobby screen, original dado of fielded panelling with modern wallpaper above, and a stone Tudor-arched fire surround, brick interior and wood surround fireplace. The bar counter is original but with a new counter top. To the rear of the servery on the public bar side is the original publican’s office, formed by full height screens with leaded glazing and retaining its door. A leaded glazed partition separates the public bar from the saloon bar on the right. The saloon bar (originally named as a ‘lounge and smoke room’) is at the front, with a dining room at the rear. This spacious room retains its entrance lobby screen with leaded transoms and original doors, original stone Tudor-arched fire surround, two dumb waiters and parquet flooring throughout. The central servery bar counter is original but with a new top and the bar back too is modern. Beyond the screen, at the rear of the smoke room, is the current function room, having been called a ‘lounge and recreation room’ on the original plan. This has since been totally modernised but still retains its original bar and illuminated fittings from the 1960s labelled ‘Courage’ and ‘Fellowship Inn Discotheque’.
Downstairs is the old purpose built theatre/cinema, now called the Bellingham Picture Palace. This has also been totally modernised but retains an Art Deco style with a raked floor and plush seating. A few of the original cinema tip-up seats have been relocated upstairs in the public bar area. Behind, on the lower level in Knapmill Street, is a former off-sales area, which is now the Milky Way Bar & Café. This also serves as the ticket office for the cinema. The Fellowship Inn was the first of Barclay Perkins’ chain of Anchor pubs (Anchor being their catering arm).
Newnham also designed other pubs on LCC estates. These included the Downham Tavern (1930) on the nearby Downham Estate, which was demolished in the late 1990s, and the Cherry Tree (1933) on the Becontree Estate. All Barclay Perkins pubs passed to Courage upon takeover in 1955.
The Fellowship was the tour’s official lunch stop and, before leaving, group members were able to visit the cinema. On the day, the real ales available were Anspach & Hobday Cooper’s Bitter (the boxer Henry Cooper once lived on the Bellingham Estate) and Five Points Hook Island Red, with Brockley Brewery Stout ‘coming soon’.
Next, a trip on the 171 bus from Bromley Road took us to the Blythe Hill Tavern, 319 Stanstead Road, Forest Hill. Like the Fellowship Inn, this pub is Grade II listed and on CAMRA’s National Inventory. It is an appealing Victorian corner local, which was probably given a makeover in the 1920s. The exterior tilework, dating from that time, has, sadly, been painted over but this doesn’t spoil the enjoyment of the interior. There are still three separate rooms with a public bar on the corner, a saloon to the left and a large room running across the back of the pub. There was once a small snug at the back of the public bar which was entered through the now sealed double doors.
The servery has an unusual T-shaped layout designed to create a counter in each of the rooms. The fittings are typical of their time; plain and undemonstrative, in contrast to earlier Victorian exuberance. The counters have plain panelling and the bar back is also modest but with Tudor arches under the lowest tier of shelves. All the ceilings have exposed beams, although they are not the real thing: they’re just nailed on to create an ‘olde worlde’ effect. An unusual feature is the way customers are free to walk across the serving area between the saloon and rear room. The pub is in CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide 2023. Dark Star Hophead, Harvey’s Sussex Best Bitter and Sharp’s Doom Bar are normally available with two other changing real ales (e.g. Sharp’s Sea Fury).
It was then back on the 171 bus to the Chandos, 56 Brockley Rise, Honor Oak. This pub is listed in CAMRA’s London Inventory of Pub Interiors as being of some regional importance. The building, which dates from the early 1900s, is of three storeys in yellow London brick, with the right-hand side being of single storey in stone (painted turquoise in recent years). The pub was acquired by Charrington’s in 1912 and remained with them and their successors until the break-up of the ‘Big Six’. The left hand entrance is up a terrazzo staircase into a vestibule with double doors leading to a large room with a bare wood floor that must have been two rooms in the past. The bar counter, which is at two angles, looks to be at least from the 1930s. The original bar back fitting has coving at the top with floral detail picked out in gold, mirrored sections and some with modern tiles. The dado panelling is modern and painted a dull green colour and a fireplace has been lost. The right hand entrance in Codrington Hill is also up a terrazzo staircase and leads into a vestibule with double doors that are not currently in use. The right hand bar has a floor covering of modern lino laid diagonally and the full height wall and ceiling panelling looks modern; it is also painted a dull green colour. The curved bar counter here is original, with three pilasters and the front is painted turquoise. Elements of the characteristic Charrington’s inter-war green, orange and opaque leaded glasswork survive in some of the windows, together with more recent replications. The pub was formerly named the Duke of Chandos, a title first created as a Barony in 1337, had a second creation in 1554, was elevated to a dukedom in 1719 but fell into abeyance in 1789. London Brewing Company London Lush plus one changing real ale such as Nene Valley Brewery Bitter are usually served here.
The final bus ride of the day was on the 122 to Forest Hill and the Sylvan Post, 24-28 Dartmouth Road. This is an interesting conversion of a former 1960s crown post office, hence the name. The venue was originally opened by Antic, featuring a display of postal memorabilia but, in 2020, the pub was one of a batch that changed management to Portobello. Although the Royal Mail items have gone, the building retains its external/internal integrated letter box suite (with apertures blanked off) and the position of the former post office counter can be discerned by the change in floor surface covering. In what would have been a staff area, two strong rooms, complete with thick steel doors, now serve as drinking snugs. Twickenham Grandstand and Sambrook’s Powerhouse Porter were the real ales on offer on the day.
From the Sylvan Post it was a short walk to the Capitol, 11-21 London Road, Forest Hill. This pub is a former Art Deco cinema and is the only surviving complete cinema building by the noted architect John Stanley Beard. It has been converted by Wetherspoon’s into a spacious pub. It is Grade II listed and is also on CAMRA’s list of outstanding conversions and restorations. An impressive frontage opens into a cavernous interior on several levels. The cinema was initially designed for silent films but the advent of the ‘talkies’ meant that sound equipment had to be inserted behind the screen.
Opened on 11 February 1929, it was designed to seat 1,700 and originally had a Compton organ. It is built of brick with a white tiled facade with blue and yellow faience decorations and the roof is concealed by a parapet. The curtain finally came down on 3 October 1973, with a screening of Scarecrow, starring Gene Hackman and Al Pacino, after which it was converted into a bingo hall. At the time of writing, it remains on Wetherspoon’s list of potential closures and has, apparently, found a buyer. The pub is in CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide 2023. Greene King Abbot and Ruddles Best Bitter plus five changing guest ales are normally served here.
Kim Rennie and Jane Jephcote