A backstreet boozer surrounded by light industry and housing which closed around 1994, was sold at auction and is now a nightclub.

It was run along with the grand old Henry Cooper boozer on the Old Kent Road (OKR), by Wolves born but Brummie based boxer Tommy Haynes who set himself up in the area when he retired. Every year there was a pancake race between this pub and the Duke of Wellington on the Old Kent Road and local dignitaries and faces turned out to cheer the lady racers on. (There is some fantastic footage on youtube).

Sadly this way of life and pub culture in this part London has now disappeared. It’s an area of the city I’ve long been fascinated with and I often tramp around the backstreets of this historically working class area, getting lost discovering and capturing the legacy of the average man, and it has been decimated. I used to stop off in rag-bag old boozers on their last legs for refreshment. I can’t do that anymore.

This pub and others like it were known for DJ’s and discos and the sounds of late night revelry from the local hostelries would fill the backstreet airwaves with laughter and merriment. Very sadly no more and the Old Kent Road is now just a thunderous road artery with only American fast food outlets and huge retail parks taking people to other more desirable locations. I know a few old faces from round here - some moved out but some stayed - and they unanimously agree that when the pubs closed the community died. All that social history and sense of belonging to an area has vanished. Turning the tide is now irreversible.

Where there was once local pride in bustling areas it breaks my heart to see such run down towns and empty streets.