A 19th Century tavern, a famous gig avenue in the heart of a lively London village with independent shops and café. It has now its doors shut, Giulia Busellato investigates what happened….
What is a pub? Well, where should we begin? There are several ways to describe them, there are some features that these strange places have in common so let’s start from those: sticking tables, strong acid smell of booze, and of course the Sunday Roast with its massive Yorkshire puddings, the loud laughs, the sound of clinking glasses filled with beers, ales, ciders and screens in every corner playing the footy.
The classic British Pub is not just a place where to grab a drink it’s a social hive buzzing activity, all revolving around the action of drinking down the sweet nectar of alcohol. In small villages, town, and rural areas, it’s a place where people meet, socialise and catchup on the community news. Old friends come together, share stories, have a laugh and keep each other company.
They talk about those times gone spent on the fishing boat in the early morning, the new construction works at the bottom of the road, the annoying dogs of the neighbour, Arsenal’s run to become champion of the Premier League, drunken stories. The pub becomes a living room, it turns into a valuable community centre that battles isolation and loneliness, a place where life is shared.
The pub culture in England has always been part of the national heritage, but recently, it is struggling to stay alive. The numbers of pubs, especially small ones, have almost been halved since 2001 with one pub closing every 12 hours. Areas such as the Yorkshire, the South East, and the Humber are the most affected ones where one hundred pubs were closed in the past years. Most campaigners fear that there will be a rise in closed pubs as the UK prepares to exit the EU as the Government will have the freedom to reduce Beer Duty.
This “plague” is also affecting the Capital. With its millions of inhabitants, it’s easy to walk pass by buildings that are being shut down and do not realize it. London is massive with its intricate pattern of roads every corner is occupied by an old or new building. It is when the lovely local pub closes that people realize that this losing process also involves the area where they live.
This is the story of The Archway Tavern in North London. The magnificent building at 1 Archway Close was shut down in 2014, and still remains vacant. The 1888 building looks down towards the city of London like an Eagle faces down the green valleys. The building stands on top of the hill, majestic and proud.
Walking the road from Holloway Station to Archway it’s impossible not to recognize the distinctive orange walls, decorated with big white windows, the green roof at the top where a big clock looks down the road and reminds people walking to the station if they are running late. On the side, there is an old Guinness sign, now rotting and falling into pieces onto the pedestrian square.
The sign was erected in 2000, it’s not very animal-friendly. It shows a clock repairer standing on the nose of a seal and the back of an ostrich which has a pint stuck in his throat because “The ostrich, travellers recall, enjoy the Guinness glass and all.” The Tavern stands proudly in the middle of a square that was recently built to re-modernise the area.
The building becomes famous when its interiors were featured on The Kink’s Muswell Hillbillies album. The inside has changed a lot during the time, a quick peek into the building reveals now light blue walls, lighter wooden flooring, white ceiling and elegant chandeliers with see-through gems that sparkle when the sun touches them. What happened to this iconic landmark?
The place was known as Dusk ‘Til Dawn, and then it briefly became The Intrepid Fox. The venue shut down in 2014 after a failed stint as a music venue. The building has seen people like The Equals, Dingle Spike, Johnny St Peters, Marty Ireland, Lee Lynch, and Poitin Michael playing there. Back in the days, the Tavern was not only open but thriving.
People used to travel there using trams and buses – it was also an essential socializing hub for the member of the Irish community in the borough. David Forkan now lives in Cork, Ireland but back in the days, he used to enjoy live music at the Tavern. He is an active member of the Facebook group “Archway Revisited,” and he remembers a particular evening at the venue: “I remember when I met my wife there in 1993. That night there was a group called the John Smith Band playing. I am glad I went in there that Friday night”.
Nick Martens works for The Royal Mail, and he is another of the 3805 members of Archway Revisited. He has brilliant memories of the Archway Tavern: “Many words written about this Tavern. Trying to get behind what was enjoyed in this place. For me, I went to the music bar on the side where fantastic live music was offered in the 80s and 90s. I am convinced I watched the Pogues on one memorable evening and many more great bands. Many foreign youths came to enjoy great music. A gigantic music venue”.
The Archway Revisited group members have plenty of amazing anecdotes about the Archway Tavern and keep each other up to date on the latest about the pub.
In 2017, Islington Council launched a £13 million project to renovate the local area. The pavement around the Archway Tavern has been expanded to create an open piazza.
This place was known as Highbury and Islington Square, but it is now known as Navigator Square. The strange maritime references could be confusing seeing as the square stands in the middle of London, but it was named after the Irish community which has been established there since the year of the Famine. The pedestalisation has been a great success, and The Square was opened in August by the Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn.
With a significant facelift to the area, the community was expecting for the Archway Tavern to be re-opened, but this did not happen. In April 2018, the property leaseholder Dr. Imtiaz Sadar submitted plans to turn the pub into a wine bar and build a nursery at the back of the building. Unsurprisingly, the Council rejected the proposal. This was not the first time that such a weird request was submitted to the local Council. Mr. Sadar went under fire when he wanted to turn the venue into an “adult entertainment” venue. The residents have complained to the Council about the idea to turn the place into a pole dancing club.
After its closure, the local community joined the Councillors to start a campaign for the pub to be re-opened. Stephanie Smith has lived in Archway since she was 15, she loves the area profoundly and started a Sunday Market. The market sells antiques, specialty products, and street food. In the come and go of the Sunday mornings, she is recognised by regulars that stop for a quick chat: “The look of the area is very different because they removed the road. With the area being renovated the Tavern is very noticeable that it is not open. Its closure impacts everybody”.
“You come up the road, and you see this amazing square with a derelict building which front is falling apart. It’s not nice to see. Fewer people come here, and some businesses are closing as well”.
The tenant, Imtiaz Sadar, has been contacted several times but didn’t respond. The Tavern looks neglected and with the grey sky adorning its silhouette seems gloomy and depressed. The owner has been given the benefit of the doubt. Nick Martens has a strong view about the owner intentions: “No wonder the Archway Tavern leaseholder is not that bothered about developing the pub. He has 10 refurbished studio flats above the bar which are rented out for no doubt very lucrative sums”.
The rooms at the top are let by 101 Estates which did not want to comment on the Archway Tavern closure. In the meantime, Jeremy Corbyn intervened in the story saying that he was disappointed by the pub not being opened and joined the campaign that tried to pressure Dr. Sadar into action.
The freeholder Enterprise Inns aims to push Dr. Sadar to open the Tavern again. Due to the lack of maintenance, there was a fire on the premises in November 2018. Firefighters saved a man that lives above the Tavern using a ladder. They believed the fire was caused by a tealight left unattended.
The iconic landmark that was once the centre of the social life in Archway is still close. Local people and the Council are still calling for the leaseholder and freeholder to act quickly because they want the pub to open in its former glory. The Archway Tavern has always been part of the history of the area, the building is iconic. Allegedly the Council had a meeting with the owner and the person who will hopefully turn the business around. The new landlord allegedly has told the Council that they have plenty of issues linked to some work they want to carry out as well as personal problems. Their project was bigger than they realized and that stopped the entire opening process. Islington council has offered to help Dr. Sadar and call him to speak out for any issues.
People from Archway are patiently hoping for the old Tavern to start running again. In the meantime the pub stays voiceless, noiseless, looking down to the city and still wonders when it will welcome music within its old walls again.
-WHERE DO PUBS COME FROM?-
The British Pub culture started thanks to our old Roman friends 2000 years ago. They brought to the UK not only roads, impressive buildings, and fantastic spa but also tavernae, shops that sold wine. They started to build them all around the main cities and along the roads since 43AD to keep the legionary troops well hydrated.
Romans were kind enough to introduce ales to their shops’ drinks list so they could provide the locals with their favourite beverage, their native brew. Nobody was unhappy in the Roman roads after this decision.
The clientele and the functions of tavernas changed throughout history and were shaped by the population that conquered the UK shores. It is after the departure of Roman in the 5th century that pubs evolved into meeting houses, a place where to congregate, gossip and arrange help within the community. The word pub comes from “public house,” someone’s home that had been opened to the public.
It was the Anglo-Saxon who established the alehouses. From the coming of Anglos, Saxons, Juts to the wild Scandinavian, tavernas changed their products and adapted to make everybody’s taste buds satisfied. They started to sell food and provide accommodations for travellers. Some of them also acted as centres to recruit volunteers for the crusade during the Middle Age.
The number of pubs increased, and it was estimated that by 1577 there were 17,000 alehouses, 2,000 inns and 400 taverns in the UK, nearly one pub for every 1,000 people. Those were the Happy Days! They were so popular among people that Anglo-Saxon king Edgar introduced a drinking measure called “the peg” to control the amount of alcohol that a person could consume. This is where the expression “To take someone down a peg” comes from. Later on, King Henry VII had to introduce an Act that required innkeepers to have a license to run a pub.
Ale and beer have always been part of the British diet throughout history not only for their exquisite taste but also because the brewing process made these drinks a safer option than the water of that time.
Decades later things changed. Cheap spirits imported from France and Holland such as Brandy and Gin were put on these pubs’ shelves and became quickly very popular. In 1736 and 1751 the Gin Acts were introduced aiming to reduced consumptions. Coffee and tea are the most recent beverages that joined the menu because of their prohibited price that made them a drink for rich and famous people in the mid-1600.
The age of the stagecoach brought in massive changing in the pubs' world; Coaching Inns started to be established on strategic routes across the entire country as shelters for crew and passengers as well as their horses. These pubs provided accommodations, warm food, and plenty of drinks. Typically, people that travelled inside the coach would also be let into the innkeeper's private saloon.
The age of the stagecoach established class distinctions during traveling with First, Second, and Third class. The pubs and inns of that time of any shapes and kind were split into several rooms and bars to cater for different classes of costumers.
These “walls” have been turned down in today’s society, and the pub has become a place of socialization that almost one in four Britons will meet their future spouse in a pub.
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