Pyrotechnists Arms to re-open?

The Pyrotechnists Arms on Nunhead Green looks set to reopen shortly, having been empty for a few months. At any event its owners, the Stonegate Pub Company, have given it a lick of paint.

The pub dates back to at least 1871 and has one of the most unique pub names in London. It derives from the fact that it once served the workers at the nearby fireworks factory, built in 1868 for C. T. Brock & Co, "Crystal Palace" Fireworks.  As the name suggests Brock's was famous for its elaborate fireworks displays at the Crystal Palace. It also made munitions though, supplying cartridges for the French army during the 1870 Franco-Prussian war.  As the Army was soon being turned against the citizens of Paris it seems likely that some of the weaponry used in the massacre that ended the 1871 Paris Commune was made in Nunhead*. 

The fireworks factory was in a field to the east of Nunhead Green.   It was only there for a few years, as those fields were soon being filled with houses - in this case Barset and Howbury Roads In the early 1870s the factory moved to Tennison Road, South Norwood. 

I believe the fireworks factory is the square area in right of picture, with a path heading down towards the green (late 1860s map)

More on the history of Brock's in Nunhead here

* there was quite an overlap between fireworks and explosives in this period, with gunpowder being the common ingredient. One of my ancestors, my great great grandfather Thomas Cook (1835-1901), seems to have been involved in both. Born in Woolwich, he worked at the Royal Arsenal and later moved to Oare near Faversham. On the 1881 census he is listed as an 'artist in fireworks' but was working at the Cotton Powder Factory which made explosives as well as distress flares.