Of the 412 watering holes that closed last year, 55 were in the capital – although it’s not all doom and gloom, there are still 3,470 venues to wet your whistle.
A new book details more than 200 of the pubs that have called time in the capital in recent decades. Drawing on both online reviews and old pub guides dating back to the 1920s, Sam Cullen delves into their stories in London’s Lost Pubs (Pen and Sword £20).
The Grave Maurice in East London was a popular haunt of The Kray twins and Ronnie once gave a TV interview there. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
They include boozers frequented by The Krays, Charles Dickens, Britpop stars and The Beatles – and even one, The George and Dragon in Vauxhall – that had a swimming pool.
Cullen, whose favourite lost pubs include the Zeitgeist in Lambeth and Sun and Dove in Camberwell, says: “As much as it’s sad that these pubs don’t exist any more, I wanted to make sure they are not lost to time by telling their stories, their history, and some of the quirky characters who drank in them.
“Pubs can tell you so much about social and cultural history. The book is a celebration of pubs that existed as a vehicle for looking at aspects of London life.
“My criteria for inclusion was that they closed within the past twenty-five years, and there was an interesting story to tell.”
Cullen says just as the East End chapters record the gangland past of now hipster-ish Hackney, so Fleet Street pubs like The White Hart – known by Mirror journalists as The Stab in the Back – chart the area’s vanished role at the heart of the newspaper industry.
“I would love to have been a fly on the wall along Fleet Street in the 1970s and 80s, or visited the Old King Lud in Ludgate Circus when Dale Winton was DJ in the 80s,” he said.
“Pubs can reflect a time and a place. Progress is sometimes bad, sometimes good.”
Camden’s rich music heritage is reflected in entries like The Camden Falcon in Royal College Street, which played its part in Britpop history hosting early gigs by Pulp, Suede, Verve, Coldplay and Blur, who were said to have been signed after playing there. It closed in 2002 and is now flats.
Madness singer Suggs, who grew up in Camden, unsuccessfully campaigned to save The Crown and Goose in Arlington Street from demolition, recalling how the band often drank there.
The Tally Ho in Fortess Road, Kentish Town, was a fixture of London’s jazz scene with Ian Dury and Dr Feelgood also playing there before its demolition in 2006.
Perhaps prematurely listed as ‘lost’, The Black Cap in Camden Town was the centre of London’s drag scene in the 1970s, with Paul O’Grady’s Lily Savage, Danny LaRue, and veteran performer Rex Jameson, aka Mrs Shufflewick entertaining the crowds. Recent suggestions are that the long-closed pub could be set for a revival.
Now turned into flats, The Victoria in Mornington Terrace was once a favourite haunt of model Kate Moss, actor Sean Bean, Oasis stars Noel and Liam Gallagher, and broadcaster Robert Elms.
Other rock’n’roll connections include the Heroes of Alma in Alma Square, St John’s Wood. Now a luxury home, it was once the closest pub to Abbey Road recording studios and a favourite drinking spot of The Beatles.
In 2011 Owen Taylor, who lived in the house, told The Daily Telegraph he’d spotted Sir Paul McCartney in a Chinese restaurant and asked if he remembered the pub. Macca replied that he and the band had spent happy hours in there after recordings.
Further north, The Alexandra in Fortis Green was converted into flats in 2014, despite campaigning by Ray and Dave Davies of The Kinks, who grew up across the road and fondly remembered family gatherings in the pub.
Perhaps the oddest loss is The Magic Hour – a faux Victorian pub with gas lamps and log fire, and The Hog’s Grunt, which both sat on a fake village green complete with duck pond at The Production Village film studios in Cricklewood Lane, Barnet.
In January 1982 it had a surprise visit from Freddie Mercury, who joined friend Peter Straker’s band Taxi on stage in tight white T-shirt for a five minute rendition of Jailhouse Rock. The band went over their time limit and the bar manager – uncaring about the superstar on stage – docked their fee.
Films including Hellraiser and Breaking Glass were shot at the studios, which were razed to the ground in 1999 and are now a David Lloyd gym.
Said to be London’s smallest pub the Swan & Edgar in Linhope Street, Marylebone, could barely hold 20 people and before closure in 2013 was famous for its bar made from stuck together books and Scrabble tiles as bathroom flooring. Successive planning applications to convert it into flats have been turned down.
Brent boasts the only pub in the book to be blown up by Loyalists. Believed to be a drinking spot for Republican sympathisers, Biddy Mulligan’s in Kilburn High Road was targeted on the Saturday night before Christmas 1975.
When bar manager John Constantine quizzed a teenager about a duffel bag he was carrying, he left; 45 minutes later a bomb exploded in the porch, injuring five and causing damage but not killing anyone. The pub is now a betting shop.
In Hampstead, the Grade II listed Horse and Groom closed in the mid 1990s and is now a treatment salon and flats. The King of Bohemia in the High Street dates back to the 1680s and was immortalised in a song by Fairport Convention founder Richard Thompson about an encounter with a young woman there. It closed in 2003 and is now a branch of Reiss.
Despite once organising a Kinks night at which Highgate local Ray Davies himself turned up, The Victoria in North Hill, Highgate, has stood empty since it closed in 2017.
Cullen says perhaps the most famous pub in the book is Jack Straw’s Castle. Listed in every guide he researched, it is named after a leader of the Peasants’ Revolt and was once frequented by writers Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens, who praised it as a place where he could get “a red-hot chop for dinner, and a glass of good wine”. It was namechecked in Bram Stoker’s Dracula as a dining spot for Professor Van Helsing, and by Harold Pinter in his play No Man’s Land.
Badly damaged in the Blitz, the current building dates to the 1960s. It closed in 2002 and is now a gym, offices and flats, but Cullen says of all the lost pubs it is ripest for revival.
He said: “With its views over the Heath and such tourist folklore I’m surprised no-one has done that.”
Islington pubs listed in the book include The Charles Lamb in Elia Street, The Copenhagen, which closed in 2018 and is now flats and a Sainsbury’s, the Grade II listed Hat & Feathers in Clerkenwell Road, which is part hotel, part empty, and The Old Parr’s Head in Upper Street, which once staged theatrical performances in the 18th Century but closed in 2006 and is now a clothes shop.
The Sir George Robey in Finsbury Park was named after a Victorian music hall star who performed in The Rainbow Theatre opposite. It was a famous music pub and nightclub in the 1990s, hosting ska, punk, indie, acid house and Britpop nights, including early gigs by Blur, Hawkwind, Billy Bragg and Bad Manners.
Writer Nick Hornby said The Harry Lauder in his novel High Fidelity was based on the pub, and near the end of Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting, Sick Boy and Begbie pay it a visit. It closed in 2004 and stood empty for a decade until demolition in 2015. A Premier Inn is now on the site.
Cullen says some London pubs like 1960s Finsbury Park pub The Happy Man, also known as The Blarney Stone and Becher’s, were lost due to redevelopment.
It closed in 2019 and was demolished as part of the overhaul of Woodberry Down Estate – alongside the 150-year-old ‘Happy Man tree’, which campaigners unsuccessfully tried to save.
In the 1960s, The Hornsey Wood Tavern in Seven Sisters Road hosted stars like Jeff Beck and Led Zeppelin, but the Victorian pub closed in 2007 and was demolished to make way for flats.
And in Barnsbury, the Grade II-listed White Conduit House stood on the site of a famous 18th Century tea room frequented by the likes of Oliver Goldsmith. The current building dates to Victorian times. It was renamed The Penny Farthing, closed in the noughties and is now a restaurant.
In East London, The Fox in Kingsland Road closed for good in 2018 despite a reputation as a craft beer spot. Clifford Saxe, the landlord from the 1960s to the 80s, was implicated in some high profile crimes including the Security Express Robbery in Shoreditch in 1983 and retired to Spain.
The following year, police broke through a false wall in the pub and discovered a secret compartment where they believe the loot had been hidden. Some of the recovered bank notes had apparently smelled of old beer. The upper floors are now flats, but downstairs remains empty.
Despite a tussle with protestors and CAMRA The Acorn in Queensbridge Road, Haggerston was demolished in 2021 to make way for flats.
And The Grave Maurice in Whitechapel Road was frequented by East End gangsters The Krays, Frankie Fraser and George Cornell. Ronnie was interviewed there for a TV show, and pop star Morrissey was later photographed outside it for the cover of his 1995 single Sunny.
With the number of pubs countrywide slumping from 75,000 in 1960 to below 39,000 today, Cullen admits his book could “potentially be a depressing read”.
He said: “These pubs are not lost as long as we have a memory of them. I’ve written this to make sure they’re remembered, in most cases with a smile, rather than being lost to the mists of time.”
Lost Pubs by Sam Cullen is published by Pen and Sword Books on January 31.
