Pop into the Geezers’ exhibition The Geezers started logging disappeared East End pubs on a Facebook page and have teamed up with artists Lucy Schofield and Louise Gridley for an exhibition entitled Misbehaviour. see below History Got a story to tell? If you have a tale about East End history, write to John Rennie or email him at johnrennie@gmail.com www.eastlondonhistory.com Fusty beer, sticky floors or heart of a community? BY JOHN RENNIE WHEN I lived in Fairfield Road, Bow in the 1990s, there were two pubs within a stumble of my front door. Turn right and there was the Caledonian Arms. Turn left and I could be playing bar billiards in the Bromley Arms, bang opposite the bus depot – and for decades a favourite of the drivers and conductors (and the tram drivers and conductors before them) when they came off shift. Or I could head up towards the Roman Road and have a pint in the Hand and Flower. All are now gone, along with hundreds of others. The statistics vary dramatically but they’re never good – recent estimates have 31 British pubs closing every week, admittedly down from 52 a week in 2009. And the East End seems to have it worse than most. It’s hard to pass a corner site on a Victorian street in east London without catching yourself and saying: ‘Didn’t there used to be…?’. But now a group of ‘geezers’ (their description, not mine) are fighting back. The East End Geezers Club, an “eclectic and dynamic group of gentlemen over 50, based in Bow”, meet weekly at Appian Court, Age UK’s centre in Bow. The Geezers have a drink problem – not ingesting too much ale, but simply finding a place to supp it. There’s a serious point here. Their new project – Where’s my boozer gone? – highlights the problem of the disappearing local pub and the dramatic effect it has on local communities. In Bow alone, the Geezers have identified more than 50 pubs no longer open to serve the community. Extrapolate across the Isle of Dogs, Bethnal Green, Spitalfields and the rest, and it’s hundreds. Michael North, a publican (long retired), who ran pubs in east London during the 1960s and 70s, then around Peckham and Dulwich during the 80s, recognises the problem. And it’s not about booze. “The old local was a place to go, with your mates on a Friday, with the wife on a Saturday, and with the family on Sunday lunchtime,” he says. “It’s not about sinking pints… it’s about a place at the heart of the community. It’s often not replaced.” The Geezers started logging the disappeared on a Facebook page and it caught the imagination of a younger generation. They’ve now teamed up with artists Lucy Schofield and Louise Gridley to bring the idea to multimedia life. Artworks inspired by the project are to be exhibited as part of a mixed-media exhibition entitled Misbehaviour, which begins this Saturday in Mile End (see page 20). And it’s quite a story. A glance at old street plans and photos throws up a grim tally of dead pubs. Often (and, of course, people need homes even more than they need a drink) they have been “converted to residential use”. People are now happily domiciled within the former Britannia in Cable Street, the Crown and Dolphin in Cannon Street Road and the Colet Arms in White Road. Walk through any grid of Victorian streets and you see the telltale signs – a rounded-off corner site, big windows with heavy sills where pints used to rest, perhaps the flat plaque of concrete on the wall where the pub sign used to be painted. Many more are not homes. There is the legend “now replaced by a supermarket” for the Australian Arms at 18 Bigland Street, or “demolished and replaced by an office block” for the China Ship at 4 Orton Street. And, of course, those Victorian pubs had names you just don’t get any more. Aldgate alone had a brace of Almas (memories of the Crimean War). One at 41 Spelman Street is now used by the Providence Housing Trust; another at 67 Princelet Street suffered the indignity of simply being boarded up. London pubs always loved a military campaign – think of all the Trafalgars and Waterloos, the Lord Nelsons and Dukes of Wellington. That whole curious naming system is a peculiarly English thing and was given a helping hand by Richard II who, in 1393, ordered that pubs put signs outside their premises: “Whosoever shall brew ale in the town with intention of selling it must hang out a sign, otherwise he shall forfeit his ale.” For centuries before that, Londoners had been gathering at the inns and taverns that would mutate into the modern ‘public house’. We’d brewed ale in the Bronze Age, then the organised Romans established ‘tabernae’ along their new system of roads – an early historic version of the service station. So popular did they become that in 965 King Edgar decreed there should be no more than one alehouse per village. By the early Middle Ages there was a shortage of good inns in London. Numbers grew and regulation came when the hostellers of London were granted guild status in 1446, evolving into the Worshipful Company of Innholders. And in the 19th century came what many would see as the pinnacle and the most typical London hostelry – the oak, tiled and polished brass palaces of the Victorian public house. This was a time of massive expansion for London, and of course all those workers wanted a drink. Lest we get too sentimental at their passing, we should remember, of course, that some of those pubs just weren’t very good. Every time you’re tempted to wipe away a tear as you pass a Victorian pub pressed into use as flats or a car park, remind yourself of the fusty beer, sticky carpets and unvisitable toilets that saw off many a licensed house. But we’ve lost some superb names: the Bombay Grab and the Jolly Butchers, the Three Swedish Crowns and the Blade Bone, the Flying Scud. And, of course, some very good pubs remain. The East End still has the Prospect of Whitby, the Grapes and many more. Crucially too, something is stirring in the brewhouse. New craft breweries, pubs with breweries onsite… even the venerable name of Truman’s, which left the East End decades ago, has been re-invented. But, alongside the bearded hipsters, the old geezers need a pint and place to play darts and chat, too. Think of them, and the dead pubs which were once at the heart of East End communities. And pay a visit to the Geezers exhibition. Misbehaviour runs at the Art Pavilion, Clinton Road, Mile End from February 14- 22, open 11am-7pm. You can meet The Geezers in their pub installation at the Pavilion on Tuesday, 17 February 17 from 2-4pm. More details at www.artcatcher.co.uk The Geezers Facebook page is at www.facebook.com/groups/ wheresmyboozergone/ With thanks to: www.closedpubs.co.uk/ www.derelictlondon.com/eastlondon. html Your local was a place to go with your mates on a Friday, the wife on a Saturday, the family on Sunday lunchtime.” Michael North 9 – 15 FEBRUARY 2015 N E W S F R O M TOWER HAMLETS COUNCIL AND YOUR COMMUNITY 13
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