Streetlife

I just feel gutted to see all those wonderful big old Victorian pub buildings being torn down and the ones left standing neglected. Even back when I first came to East Ham you had the Burnell doing a lively trade as a bikers' pub and the Cock on the High St in East Ham having lively karaokes - both now gone along with my own former favourite The Dukes Head (great jukebox, pool tables, crazy fishtank and great bar staff back in the early '90s. Still waiting to see what they'll do with the Ruskin where Iron Maiden started out and Status Quo once played. Thank god for the Boleyn and The Millers Well.

Hi Susan,
Yes i agree as all the pubs have gone and my friend had the Cock and other pubs too, The Millers is good for prices but no atmosphere but the Denmark is good for Karaoke on the Saturday night but if West Ham move to the Olympic stadium in 2014 as planned these pubs will go too especially the Boleyn.

To me pubs were the meeting point and have a drink with others and also share things in life with others. This environment is to know each other and know the community through this . I really used to enjoy this very much and now in the name of new technology this is all come to an end. To me again this is why we now face this problems in our community. This is very sad these days and I only hope this will come back to us.

Pubs don't disappear because of technology - don't be fooled. They disappear because the government lets them go. The government gives the owners 'permitted development' rights to make more money and allow a change to betting offices, supermarkets etc. The character, strength and importance of places where people relax, meet friends/family, enjoy their community, meet new people, make music, have meetings, organise events, celebrate births, marriages and deaths means nothing to government ministers who live in completely different areas.

Councils can individually do a certain amount to resist the loss but if they really cared they'd get organised and lobby collectively - like they should.

At the council's annual AGM this problem was discussed - though more in terms of trying to stop mushrooming of betting shops on local High Streets. Think rules have now been toughened, though does feel a bit like locking the doors after the horse has bolted.

Also be great to limit payday loans companies in favour of credit unions, cut back on chicken shops and mobile phone shops and have a few more character businesses like the wonderful Tippy's Cafe.

Oh and Eric G, just read your posting. Know what you mean about Denmark. All it needs is some decent management willing to spend a bit of cash to give the place a lick of paint, get some decent beers in, a good jukebox, being the footie back and some good pub grub.

Oh, and yes, poundshops can get lost as well - I mean how many shops selling same stock at same price do you need?

Come to Dagenham and drink in the Tesco's Head, the Tesco's Arms or the Tesco's Hotel. Cheap drinks but no atmosphere or darts !

The big companies have us in their sights at the Olympics too. McDonalds/Coca cola... East London pubs are what we are known for! And people from all over the world will come here and expect to see good pubs with good atmosphere. But we have huge global companies preparing to make big money out of us. Even little caffs can't use the word Olympics in it and Council money and staff is used used to pursue them - for what?! East London has become 'branded' as an exciting destination - and scrubbed of what we are and have.

Actually, somewhere in Newham you wouldn't expect to be good, but is is the Winsor Arms in Beckton, opposite Asda. Good food, warm atmosphere. Lots of big groups/ families

Agreed, Glynis. Shame they couldn't have tarted up pubs, particularly round parks with big screens like Central Park, rather than replacing pavements and hanging up a few baskets. They will get loads of extra custom.

Though exception is the wonderful cafe in Central Park, E6 where you can now get a wonderful Sunday roast with live music on a Sunday. Really buzzy atmosphere. Bring own drink to have with food (cheap corkage). Can't wait to see what stops they pull out for having big screen there.

Hi Susan, the main reason for the old pub closure around here is all the white folk are leaving for Essex and in my Street there is only 3 white English families including my own, so if i was the Brewery i would sell, the pubs that i owned, i was in the Millers Well tonight and there was only about 30 people there so you cant run a business like that. We do big TV commercials for the Brewery's and ASDA and Tescos and other clients and it is all to do with marketing. If East Ham had a night club or 2 like Ilford then people could meet up and have a good time like i do at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in Soho, it is always busy up there, i wished i could travel back in time as East Ham was great in the 1960s and every pub was 12 deep at the bar and the live music too, these immigrants dont like Jazz Blues and Rock and Roll and even themselvs, and i'm glad Tecos are opening all those express shops up and doing these immigrants out of buisness, it is a shme we have not got a Huge ASDA or Tescos in East Ham as you do in Beckton.

As already said the people that use Public Houses are moving away, this had already occured in other trades within the Newham area such as Fishing Tackle shops. The was once quite a few places where fishing equipment and bait could be purchased within Newham but the only place that sells any type of equipment now is Argos but they don't sell bait.

Eric, Not sure it's a simple black/ white thing let alone immigrants - or not in the way you're saying. Immigrants have always been part of life in the East End (and bring a lot to it). Was doing research for a project a while back and historically, even before the Commonwealth immigration times, we had loads of European businesses set up by folk fleeing persecution on the continent. Then there was the huge Irish presence through the seventies and eighties. The Afro-Carribean community have always frequented local pubs and are a huge part of the jazz scene as well as bringing ska influences over - even locally, in the early noughties there was an amazing underground jazz club in a Forest Gate house run by a local black resident (not sadly no longer with us)  where you could enjoy goat curry while watching live jazz.  And with Eastern European immigrants, they definitely use our old pubs. REmember a mad night at a disco in the Ruskin Arms full of Russians and Poles.

Even with the Asian community, who you'd expect to be less interested, there's a big Asian presence in the Overdraft Tavern in East Ham and there was another old pub - with a curry restaurant attached - in Ilford I went to that also had big Asian presence, so it's not a straight-forward thing.

The irony is that with the Tories bringing in benefit caps, I'd imagine there will be an influx of more working class families in low-paid jobs, being pushed out of wealthier areas; coupled with a new wave of Irish immigration - following collapse of the Euro - and a post-olympics influx of younger folk attracted by our cheaper house prices and intrigued by the Olympic spot-lighting. If that happens, can see people coming back to pubs and some of them being tarted up (in way they have been in Hoxton/ Shoreditch). Just hope that happens before they've all been turned into Tescos/ Betting Shops or lost to us like the Burnell.

With all areas, it's about cycles. There used to be a huge Jewish population in the East End, now they've largely all headed to North/West of the City . When I first moved to East Ham it was a mix of Asians/ Somalis rubbing along with the white working class, now there are all the Eastern Europeans. Nothing stays the same in the East End. It's the way it's always been.

Hi Sue,
I do TV adverting so were are in touch with the marketing people for the brewery’s and Tesco’s, ASDA and British airways our company makes most of the TV commercials that you see on TV and the brewery guy said the other day you don’t put pubs in an area where no one uses them anymore so they sell these properties on, I passed my old local last night the Green Man in Katherine road now Flats and also the Brunel and the Ruskin now gone but the Ruskin I believe is going to be a hotel, I also went into the Millers then the Denmark and the Denmark closed early last night due to lack of business as I know the landlord well also the Millers was rubbish too, I will stick to the West End on a Saturday night in future. The 2 remaining English families in my street are selling up and going to Hornchurch a nice place next month so that leaves only me, so I will sell up in the New Year and move to a lovely English village in Hertfordshire as I know the area well as we use it for locations I hope I will be out of this dump next year, a shame really as East Ham was great in the 1960s. I had to laugh when you mentioned the goats I saw a few blacks eating them (ha ha ha ha) I can’t wait to move as the only place in East Ham for English East Enders is the Workingman’s Club of the Barking road near the Boleyn and I heard that was shutting down if West Ham United move from Upton Park after the Olympics as I think they will get the stadium and kick off the new season there in 2014

Loads of pub have closed in custom house.And has you said flats have been built mostley on them.i live near the Gog pub,and that has been closed over 10 years.its been on fire,and kids climb up on the roof,even thow its all blocked off,kids still seem to get on it,people tell them to get down all you get is swore at,or stones thrown at you or your windows,cars etc,it will not take long before one or two will fall .Then who will get the blame for that,Its about time somethink was done with the Gog pub.Has long has it isent Block of flats,has it block out how sun.:(

Hi Y.B.,

I thought the New Gog would have bit the
dust by now as I used to dock in the Royal docks bound for Rio, New Zealand and
so on; we used the Steps (The Custom House Hotel) also the Peacock, The
Freemasons, The Standard, Prince of Wales, The Gog and the Tidal Basin Tavern also
the Flag as well, I was in Custom House about 5 years ago having a look around
for old times sake and the new houses look good as I stayed in digs between
ships in Chauntler Road opposite Custom House Railway station rather than use
the old Flying Angel seamen’s mission, that is being redeveloped too as it was
an immigrants hostel before, but the developers cannot knock it down as it has
the Queens warranty on the building. Queen Mary opened the joint in the late
1920s or early 1930s for the seamen. Do let me know what has happened to it
also the Tidal Basin Tavern as I know it is closed, regards. Eric.

Hi eric... The Tidal Basin pub still there but not in use now still standing .nothink been done with it,Just like the The New Gog,all them pubs u mention have gone now.only pub is hallsville taven that is still open,other then that you have to go over to the fox in excel building ,which is a yuppy pub..I did hear that they have knocked the back about in seamans mission,but have kept the front of it the same,and it is now flats,

And Eric... Alot ppl have moved from custom House now all gone essex way.even my sister moved .,she loves it where she is,said she would never move back to this dump again,all her family have moved that way.I think give it another year and i think we be next,theres only about 4 familes i talk to in this street now,other just say hi or nothink at all.im lucky to have good ppl eather side of me.,But some havent..such a shame,was a nice place when i moved here over 23 years ago.nothink stays the same.