True story of an ED Pub

[snorky]

A Local-ish pub an its hidden but deceptively spacious workshop area went on the commericial market a while ago. Numbers in excess of ?1.2M were bandied about when the owner got some kind of outline permission for the workshop area to be converted into flats.

The interesting thing about this pub is thats it huge.Massive in fact. Its been revamped.Its had money spent on it .Its been relaunched.Its had resturants started in it and these have not survived - the owner - quite rightly IMHO - knows that the days of neighourhood pubs and old men nursing a half for 3 days dont pay the bills. The average non trendy pub grosses about ?60K a year - not much in the big scheme of things.The Freeholder has lashed out money and world all the horus to make a living, but its a losing battle and reality has to kick in at some point, as much as he loves his pub.

The same crowd go to the pub every day, its too far off the main drag to attarct new punters in any great numbers and TBH, its only the regulars who make up the customers nowadays.

So the place was put up for sale.

One day, the freeholder/ owner is sitting in his pretty much deserted pub , mid afternoon, when a gaggle of middle class female busybodies march throuh the door and demand to see the owner. When he confesses that he is indeed the owner, they thust a sheaf of papers under his nose and announce that they have x hundred signatures from "locals" and demand that the pub be withdrawn from the market and the valuable local asset be kept.It seems that thwere has been some local campaign going , unknown to the actual pub owner.

The landlord looks them up and down and asks " Who the f*ck are you lot ?"

He did not recognise any of them.

Not one of these concerned local citizens had ever stepped foot inside that pub in their entire lives.

[*Bob*]

Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you've got

Till it's gone

They paved paradise

And they put up a parking lot

(or something)

[Jah Lush]

What pub's that then?

[Tom]

So - that's the Oglander then??!

[rob]

Perhaps the Castle? I used to go there a lot, but it got a bit much even for me (and I like "much").

[Jeremy]

-"Its been revamped.Its had money spent on it" : therefore not the Castle in ED

-"neighourhood pubs and old men nursing a half for 3 days" : therefore not the Castle in Camberwell

[SeanMacGabhann]

Locall-ish

Off main drag

Lots of money spent on it

Restaurants IN it

middle class women with a petition?

Not The Vale is it? No that's not up for sale...

[Jah Lush]

snorky Wrote:

> The landlord looks them up and down and asks " Who

> the f*ck are you lot ?"

Sounds like Reg who owns the Magala and the Palmerston.

[snorky]

Tsk tsk tsk

does it matter what pub it is ?

the point is......Oh Im not going to explain it! its a fantastic short story tho'

[Jah Lush]

Come on Snorky, out with it, you've got us all in suspense.

[SeanMacGabhann]

heh heh snorky

Tis a fantastic story and we do get the point... but it's only human to be interested in which pub and think "why didn't I go there more"

I can't think of any pub I don't frequent but would want to keep open for its F&F

[blinder999]

must be the Oglander - nice plans too:

RDA Oglander

[*Bob*]

Must be the Oglander.

The story is a lesson to us all. We should all go to the pub immediately and do our bit for the community

[Jah Lush]

I used to love popping in there now and then for a late four or five and skanking to the reggae and tucking into some jerk chicken. I'd not been there for some time and had no idea it had even shut down. What a shame.

[Ted Max]

Hello all. May I? This has to be the Oglander and the paper-thrusters will be the ever-anxious Bellenden Residents' Group. Their objection is more along the lines of the "we don't want more flats, more people, more cars" etc etc stuff than actually keeping the pub - about which they could clearly care less. In fact if there were no pub there and someone was planning to open one you can be fairly sure they'd be against that too.

[Jah Lush]

Alas, you're probably right on the money there Ted.

[*Bob*]

Is there anyone from the BRG reading? COME FORTH!

[snorky]

I am moved to tears by your reponses to my storyette

PS - I have more than a passing aquaintance with the BRG - I cannot comment any further, as this site would probabaly be shut dowen under the obscenity laws, considering the language I may be tempted to use

"bellend" being possibly the least offensive of the filth I would use

[Ted Max]

It may be academic now, but I think with all the money gone into the Oglander one trick they missed out on was not opening it up a bit more out the front to make it look slightly less "regulars only" - but perhaps they would not have been allowed to. And re the thread header, if it had been in ED proper then I think it would have done OK. Down here I think the "nice pub" crowd (you know what I mean) head to the Gowlett if they're keeping it local, or up to LL. Oglander sort of got overlooked in between.

[blinder999]

I agree Ted. I lived opposite the Oglander for three years and never once went in there. We thought it was hilarious when they stuck up 'Tapas Bar' signs.

[Louisa]

I remember the Oglander in the 1980's, and it was in the dying days of the traditional London boozer... Lots of characters, a piano (which was often played by uncle charlie)... roast potatoes and crisps on the bar of a sunday.. I think what destroyed the place was well, the death of half of the old timers who had been going there for years, and the isolation felt by many when it was sort of turned into a pub type tapas thing... It didnt pick a direction and go in it... oh well, bring on the flats I guess :(

[Michael Palaeologus]

When I lived near the Ivanhoe the pub was little used by the nice middle class people because it was a dump and full of "rough people". There was then news that it was to be sold as flats. The reaction of the nice middle class people? "Oh my god more parking problems!". I told one of the nice middle class people about the change of plans and the good reports of the place - the response? - "I'm still not going in there, it was always a dump".

You really cannot win.

I do see myself as middle-class however I like to think that most of the time I do not have my head up my *rse.

[Parker's Folly]

And who said that the class system and its prejudices are dead and buried in England?

The one thing that is guaranteed to always come up on this forum is middle vs working class.

[Jah Lush]

You've hit the nail on the head there Parker's Folly. Fancy living across the road from a pub and never setting foot inside it's portals. Class snobbery indeed.

[Keef]

Class is such a total load of bo!!ocks!!! It really gets on my nerves people talking about middle class / working class..... How does one define between the 2 these days.... Money? Values? Trendy clothes? Whether you drink in The Black Cherry or The Castle? It's a big pile of sh!t.

Sorry :-$