Beer and coffee latest: ex-White Hart opening in New Cross, new coffee shop by Nunhead station and much more

As always lots going on in the SE London beer and coffee zone. 

Best news is that a new pub is set to open shortly on the site of the former White Hart in New Cross Gate. The Broken Wheel, as it will be named, will occupy the iconic junction of New Cross Road and Queens Road, a place where there really should be a pub. The White Hart was there for over 170 years, it had its ups and downs but in its most recent incarnation was doing really well with great Sunday lunches including a fine Irish music session. Unfortunately it closed in the Covid period and has been empty since. In the mean time rooms above the pub have been converted to flats which may put some limits on noise and late hours, but hopefully not hamper the pub's success (see more about the pub's history at this earlier post).

work underway at the Broken Wheel (ex White Hart), photo from their insta @thebrokenwheelpub

Not far away the famous Montague Arms is up for let but no sign of a tenant as yet. Like the White Hart the pub closed during the pandemic and at one time looked likely to be demolished. Instead the upstairs has been converted to flats leaving the space downstairs refurbished but smaller. The famous stage is long gone (more about the Monty here), but scope for a good neighbourhood bar. See previous posts about history of this place.

Montague Arms - done up but still empty

A new coffee shop is set to open by Nunhead station soon. I know it sometimes feels like there's coffee shops everywhere but there actually isn't one here for caffeine-hungry commuters and other locals at this end (though there is Goodcup of course by Nunhead Green).  Servesmiths, which runs two shops in Catford, is coming to the site of the former Tony's barber shop at 52 Gibbon Road (next to Silver Fish Chinese takeaway).

Site of new Servesmiths coffee shop by Nunhead station (building in middle to left of Silver Fish)

Hopefully some of these places will become community hubs with space for music and meetings, as happens with many of our existing bars and cafes. It's been amazing for instance seeing the Old Nun's Head become a queer destination pub, and so many people enjoying the music and the craic at Skehans. 

Here's a few more examples from next week:

Welsh electronic duo Overmono are celebrating the launch of their new album Pure Devotion by running a pub for the day, The Two Dogs, in Deptford on Friday 7 August. Actually judging by the address they are actually doing this at the famous Dog and Bell pub in Prince Street SE8.

Bar D4100 (Dinner for One Hundred) are having a party on the 8th August at their Nunhead bar. The pizza people started out at the Hill Station Cafe SE14  (actually I think they started out in a family garden even before) and are very much rooted in the New Cross/Nunhead community. Locally based singer Jessie Ware recently declared them to be the best pizza on London in an interview with Topjaw (she also name checked Eat Vietnam in Deptford)

Joyce in Brockley are hosting another Brockley Queer FLINTA social on 11 August. If you haven't been keeping up with your acronyms that's 'Female, Lesbian, Intersex, Non-binary, Trans, and Agender'. 

Hollydale Tavern reopens

The Hollydale Tavern - on the corner of Hollydale and Brayards Roads SE15 - has been spruced up and reopened, having been closed since 2019. We popped in for an early evening drink last week, very child friendly at that time of night with craft activities for kids going on and families ordering in pizza from Yard Sale.

The pub has an exhibition of delightful bird prints by locally based artist Fran Giffard. Fran says 'I  live and work in Peckham Rye, London. When I am not drawing birds in my studio, I am studying them at the Natural History Museum or the Horniman Museum' (interview with her at Little Observationist).

photo by Fran Giffard 

Goldfinch 

Skehans - best pub in London?

Good showing for SE London in Time Out's '50 Best Pubs in London' 2023 pub of the year awards, announced a couple of weeks ago.

My local, Skehans (Kitto Road SE14), is now the best pub in London apparently. A few years ago it was quite empty on some mid week nights but its managed to grow in popularity without losing its older regulars and now 'attracts everyone from OAPs to local bands, chic fashion students and troupes of cheerful lads. There’s karaoke, folk-music nights and terrific Thai food too. What more could you want? Perfect Guinness? Well, this is a proper Irish pub, so you’re in luck'. As well as winning this award, the pub has also been mentioned in  the last year in everything from The Tatler (which described it as 'a magnet for Guinness-swilling arty types') to the Limerick Post (its owner Bryan Fitzsimons hails from there). Not to mention featuring as a location in ITV drama series 'You and Me'.

Morris dancers outside Skehans earlier this year

The Blythe Hill Tavern in Catford comes in at no.7, a classic Irish pub with music sessions and scene for me of many running club (Kent AC) committee meetings upstairs. The Ivy House in Nunhead is in at number 10, great community owned pub and home to the Goose is Out folk club and other music nights. 

Elsewhere in the top 50 we have the Prince of Peckham (19), The Gowlett in Peckham (23), The Dog and Bell in Deptford (32), The Mayflower in Rotherhithe (35), The Camberwell Arms (46). All good choices though I am sure we all have our own preferences - personally would like to see New Cross House in there for instance, maybe next year.

Skehans history

Skehans has received media attention before, being featured on the Evening Standard's Cool List in 2018. The pub has been there since the 1890s, originally known as the Duke of Albany.  The Time Out article lists its location as Nunhead, which makes sense as it is near to Nunhead station. The Tatler article, which is pretty clueless, says Brockley but that would really be stretching it. Others would point to its SE14 address and claim it for New Cross, or for Telegraph Hill. I guess it's a postcode border zone - interestingly an early listing as a masonic meeting place gives its address as the Duke of Albany Hotel, Kitto Road, St Katherine's-park, Hatcham (The Freemason, 8 October 1892). St Katherine's Park was the original names for the Victorian housing development on Telegraph Hill, but the name doesn't seem to have stuck. In the 1990s the pub was known as McConnell's free house, and was also known locally for many years as the red house on account of its red bricks. 

If you look closely today at the brickwork on the Gellatly Road side of the pub you will see some graffiti scratched in the bricks all seemingly dating from June 1971 - among the initials we can see FW, TE, CW, WD and others. Wonder who these were and what was happening on those June days more than 50 years ago?

Farewell Nunhead Beer Shop

The Beer Shop in Nunhead Green is celebrating its 8th birthday this weekend, but sadly this will be its last as it will be closing this month. The landlord has declined to renew the lease and with plans to convert upstairs into a flat another bar there seems unlikely.

The place is always friendly and usually busy and will be greatly missed, as will its great selection of beers and ciders. 

Amidst the general gloom about pub closures I saw the Beer Shop as a sign of optimism. Sure some old boozers were disappearing but was it the end of the world if new spaces of alcohol-tinged sociality were springing up in places like, in this case, a former wool shop? But sadly the optimism seems to be misplaced - it seems that places that pop up can just as easily vanish at the whim of property owners, regardless of how valued they are by communities.

Any way so long Beer Shop folks and thanks for the cider, good luck with your future adventures.