The Plough Pub

[Louisa]

The Harvester should be fully restored to The Grove Hotel, which was a famous coaching inn until the 1920's. I remember the Harvester promising to retain all original features and the name of this historic pub when they took over ownership in the late 70's, and yet this place has seen three dubious fires, some awful refurbs which have incorporated nothing of the original pub, and eventually name "Grove Tavern" being removed altogether from the signage. Just like the beautiful concrete house and st peters church, the history and cultural value of this part of LL has been left to rot and it is really offensive. The same is true of the Plough which again was an historic inn for farm laborers for nearly four centuries, and ended up in the hands of some stupid pub company!

Bring back some decent traditional pubs.. please!

[mockney piers]

Wow, for once we're in total agreement Louisa...hurrah. Not that I saw the Grove Tavern in the 70s or anything, but it's a great building which seems to have had every trace of character removed. A traditional pub there would be a godsend. A lovely pint of ale prior to a walk in the woods!

[*Bob*]

I too wish there were pubs with original features still left in the area, but once a pub has been mucked about with and its original charm destroyed, there's no going back.

Are 'Harvesters' still popular these days?

[mockney piers]

I guess so. It can't all be Livers in Brine and Braggadoccio a la Chiesa I guess.

[Louisa]

Most of the older Harvester pubs have taken over historic or traditional pubs and transformed them, whereas most of the new ones are situated on out of town shopping malls or service areas where they are more suited I think. I last was forced to eat in a Harvester two years ago, and I found the menu had no direction, and the steak I had was awful. As you say Mockney, it would be great to have a pint and then wander for a walk into the woods. This is such an historic place and yet its being totally overlooked by the Harvester.

[*Bob*]

We could petition to have the Harvester replaced with an Angus Steak house.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Corporate-run pubs - horrible horrible places. And Harvester likes to give the impressionn it's a nice, relatively cheap place to take a family for a meal. It's as expensive as Franklins for (as Louisa said) a bleedin horrible steak

I might open up a little shebeen in the woods for us forumites..

[Huguenot]

They're opening 17 new Harvester pubs in the next four months. Someone must be going to them or they couldn't afford it.

They win best pub awards in places like Romford.

Terrible, terrible

[SeanMacGabhann]

I used to live in Ilford. Come to think of it I would have payed for a Harvester back then..

[Jah Lush]

I've been saying this for ages and well done Louisa for bringing this up again. I remember the Grove Tavern when it was a proper pub. It had a very good restaurant too. It was Pub of the Year in 1972 if memory serves me well and I'm told that no less than Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor used to eat in there from time to time back in the 60s. Also, what a great walk - have a few pints in there and then walk through the fabulous woods and end up at the Dulwich Wood House for a few pints more.

[Brendan]

The Plough is my closest pub but I never used to go there because the atmosphere too violent (this coming from a guy who is known to have the odd Guinness in the Castle). I do hope it turns out ok after the refurb etc. It would be nice if they kept the name though, for historical purposes and all that.

[Jah Lush]

Absolutely Brendan. They shouldn't call it anything else with all that history. Also, if they can get the Guinness as good as Mary's in the Castle it may give them some competition.

[bob]

Jah Lush

Your memory dose serve you well I use to take clients there,fantastic food and wine, and yes lizze and dick ate there when they had their house in the village.

Bob S

[Trevor Moore]

New to this forum - not sure if this dups something already covered but The Plough freehold is owned by Mitchells & Butler and indeed appears as one of their pubs on their website. So if the dog people are getting involved, maybe they are going in under some management agreement?

The exterior painting has started and The Plough name is still there in new bold lettering.

Clevor Trevor

[Louisa]

Good to see The Plough remains that, let's hope it can be revived as a great pub again.

[Louisa]

As a footnote to the Grove Tavern in it's glory days, Take a look at this wonderful picture of the Grove back in a sleepy suburban ED almost a hundred years ago.

http://www.ideal-homes.org.uk/images/southwark/dulwich/lordship-lane-00632-640.jpg

[Jah Lush]

I'll drink to that. It was one of the first pubs I ever drank in when I was a teenager back in the early 70s.

[SimonM]

I recall when they kept a couple of tethered sheep in the garden to keep the grass down :))

[ChavWivaLawDegree]

The Plough is my local pub, and I thought it was just being tarted up a bit in advance of the smoking ban. Cheap beer, shit food, pool tables, cheap beer, what more could a girl want??

[Keef]

I'm with you on the cheap beer front!

[bawdy-nan]

Apparently the idea is to put the prices up and have food. From the plans it looks as though they're mainly focussing on the smoking ban - the outside is a big focus and they're planning to have year round heated outside covered smoking area. I assume that's what lots of places will be doing but its pretty bad, I think - energy wastage wise.

[TillieTrotter]

The Dog is owned by the same company Clever Trevor.

[citizenED]

Thanks for the picture of the Grove Tavern, Louisa. The Grove gets a bit of negative press here on the Forum. I've been there several times for meals and sometimes its just the right place. Went there once with a large family group, consisting of lots of kids, a very wide age range, people of different culinary tastes, some out-of-towners. Some of the group turned up after we'd ordered and some left before the end. The meal was made by the rather patient waitress who coped admirably with people ordering at different times, people changing orders and the general chaos. She was brilliant. Can't imagine too many other establishnments coping so well.

From what I see the place is very popular. It's not my favourite place but it certainly has it's role in ED. Does every pub in ED have to be gentrified?

citizen

[Jah Lush]

The point is though is that it is no longer a pub but an 'horrible 'Harvester and a lot of us here would prefere if it was restored to pub.

[citizenED]

Jah, I would love that too - my point is that if all the pubs in ED get gentrified it seems a pity for those people that actually like the Harvester. Part of the problem is the location - being on the outskirts of ED - means the folks up that end of the zone get a raw deal. Don't fret we will soon have the refurbed Plough.

citizen