Grove tavern to reopen. Fact or fiction.

[Chrishesketh]

So i have heard a few rumors regarding the Grove Tavern. I first heard Weatherspoons were potentially looking at relocating from the capitol cinema to the grove in the near future. Then again having trawled through the web I cam across the Stonegate pub company who say they are due to reopen soon after a major refurbishment. Does anyone actually know the furure of the Grove. Would be nice to have it reopen as a nice pub.

[Louisa]

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?5,1308904,page=1

This thread above should shed some light. In short no one really knows.

Louisa.

[malcolmchurch]

The Stonegate pub message has been there ever since it closed and I think we can be fairly sure Stonegate will not ever be involved in the future of The Grove.

[Tradesman32]

I have been in ED for a few years now and never actually set foot in the place. Obviously after a fire and no upkeep its not looking great but what was it like beforehand?

[ratty]

pretty bad

[Earl Aelfheah]

It was a Harvester for quite a while and did what you would expect of a Harvester. The Grove was barely open before it burnt down (was it actually open at all?).

[Jah Lush]

It didn't burn down. It had a fire. It's still there. Harvester absolutely ruined it by ripping out all of its beautiful original features. It was a lovely pub once. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor used to go there in the 60s when they had a place in Dulwich. I was a regular in the 70s and it had a splendid restaurant in there in those days. If it was run on similar lines to let's say The Great Exhibition or The Ivy House and with all that space in the garden I'm sure it could be a popular destination for drinkers and foodies alike once again.

[jimbo1964]

I'd love to see it open again. It's a brilliant space.

[sandyman]

Hey, you can't just casually lob in that Burton & Taylor lived in Dulwich. More info please. Anyone? Why no blue plaque?

Jah Lush Wrote:

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Richard Burton and Elizabeth

> Taylor used to go there in the 60s when they had a

> place in Dulwich.

[Huggers]

I think Burton And Taylor used to stay in a friends modernist house in Sydenham as a hidey-hole..

http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/bromley/10383487.How_the_swinging_sixties_started_in_Sydenham___Richard_Burton_slept_off_his_hangovers_in_our_sauna_/

[jimbo1964]

He and Liz must have strolled through Cox's walk for a livener at the Grove.

[Earl Aelfheah]

Jah Lush Wrote:

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> It didn't burn down. It had a fire.

Sorry, sloppy language on my part - that's what I meant. I'm aware that it's still there.

Apparently my parents used to go there in the 60s when the local youths would race their motorbikes / scooters between it and another SE pub (name of which I can't now remember).

[Otta]

There is some talk of Southwark looking at the site for a bloody primary school.

Better than an empty building, but would much rather see a successful pub / restaurant there.

[Jah Lush]

The Grove Tavern was actually built on the site of Lord Byron's primary school. Hence you have Byron House on the estate around the corner.

[GSJ57]

Agree with Jah Lush... it was a great pub in the 70's. The garden was fantastic, especially in those glorious summers of 75 and 76!

[nxjen]

Jah Lush Wrote:

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> The Grove Tavern was actually built on the site of

> Lord Byron's primary school. Hence you have Byron

> House on the estate around the corner.

And when the school closed and the main building demolished, a Mr Bew who was one of the school's servants, opened a tavern in the outbuildings and established a tea garden. Hence you also have Bew House next door to Byron House on the estate.

[jimbo1964]

I think Byron only actually went there for about a day.

[Jah Lush]

You think? Well I think he went there a bit longer than that. A few months maybe but long enough... I think.

[jimbo1964]

Might have been longer than a day.. But not long. Doesn't really matter.. Still a good claim to fame and another reason why it must reopen as a pub.

[steveo]

A man with a theodolite just told me: 'I'm not sure what's happening. I think they may be knocking it down.'

[Jah Lush]

The Dulwich Estate has confirmed that architects have been appointed to prepare a planning application for a ?mixed development? of residential and retail uses on the site.

So, with that I can only conclude that it's closing and replaced with more ugly flats and another bloody supermarket.

Short-sighted rapacious money grabbing bastards!

If there is one thing we need up this end of Lordship Lane it's a decent pub.

[Earl Aelfheah]

Jah Lush Wrote:

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> Short-sighted rapacious money grabbing bastards!

^this

[James Barber]

It would make a great site for a new primary school.

Southwark Labour refused to propose this site for one. I asked in writing twice.

[StraferJack]

"

Short-sighted rapacious money grabbing bastards!

If there is one thing we need up this end of Lordship Lane it's a decent pub.

"

convo has been had before but it has been decades since that place was a decent pub. There must be a reason various incarnations haven't worked

[Penguin68]

James Barber wrote

It would make a great site for a new primary school.

Actually, whilst I think that, everything else being equal, its location in the borough (and footprint) would be good, it's actual location, between the South Circular and Lordship Lane would mean that, apart from those who could access it from the right side of the road - granted that does include the two big estates - would pose significant road safety issues - it wouldn't be ideal for the primary starved Underhill Road-ers for instance. I doubt whether TFL would be happy to see lollipop ladies holding up rush hour traffic on the South Circular either.

It was a successful pub back in the 70's and 80's (its gardens were great in the summer) - it even did quite well in its initial Harvester guise. But a number of wrong decisions - and a failure to build a convincing narrative for it - resulted in it losing its old customers without gaining new ones. With its parking, and its location close to a number of areas of interest it could have made a good pub/ restaurant with rooms, for instance.

Clearly that would need investment, and it wouldn't have generated the geld that the Estate thinks it can get in this way (b*stards) but it would have added to local amenity, rather than adding to the demands to be made on local education, health, water and drainage provision.