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Duke of Wellington on Acre Lane, Brixton

Brainaddict

slight system overdrive
Does anyone know anything about it - like how long the building has been empty and what plans there are for it? And has it ever been squatted?
 
I used to live around the corner from it. During the two years I lived there (2000-2002) it tended to have lots of trouble. There was at least one stabbing and one shooting (possibly two can't remember). I only ever went in there once and that was to ask for some change. One day I think it just went too far and they closed it down. I think it was probably 2002 that happened. It's just been closed ever since. AFAIK it's never been squatted.
 
And another thing...

[conspiraloon mode] Is the Hope and Anchor being kept deliberately big-screenless during the prolonged refurb to keep the Duke's displaced former regulars away before the H+A reputedly relaunches in the autumn with a "cocktail bar" upstairs. [/conspiraloon mode]

I've never seen the H+A garden as empty as it was on Saturday night.

Or is it just that they've demolished one more wall than they should - hence all the pit-props. :eek:
 
I never got the impression that many of the Dukes regulars went over to the H&A - although it's a while since I've been in the H&A so I couldn't say for sure. The Duke was very much a Jamaican-only pub as far as I could tell. I know that my former landlord (who posts on urban from time to time) once had to come to the rescue of an African man who had been stabbed in there. I don't know the full details (and it would be hearsay anyway), but IIRC his being African had something to do with it.
 
lang rabbie said:
I've never seen the H+A garden as empty as it was on Saturday night.

Last couple of times I've been there it's been as quiet as a mouse too, has been for a while.
 
Brainaddict said:
Does anyone know anything about it - like how long the building has been empty and what plans there are for it? And has it ever been squatted?
Loud ahem!

duke-of-wellington.jpg


http://www.urban75.org/brixton/bars/duke-of-wellington.html
 
Big screen was on last night in the hope and anchor... its been moved so it faces the road if that makes sense. looked pretty empty. The garden has a strange new table/fountain now.
 
The Duke of Wellington, or "Mabel's" as it was known after a former landlady, was an undistinguished local in the early 90s, with a pool table at the back; never packed, it had clearly been in decline since the departure of the legendary Mabel (whom I never knew). The beer and atmosphere was always better across the road in the Hope and Anchor, even when it was at its nadir.

In the early 2000s there was a sudden influx of young, aggressive Jamaicans (a.k.a. "yardies") in and around that area - who seemed to adopt the Duke as their base and made it very unwelcoming to others, and there were a number of incidents including the one GG refers to above when we had a seriously-wounded African man on our doorstep, who had been stabbed following an argument over a karaoke song-book.

It will probably be turned into flats for claphamites, like the Springfield round the corner.
 
It'd be a pity though; it's a proper pub building and we need a few more proper pubs.

But to be frank I'd rather the butchers next door reopened as a proper butchers again.
 
*Brainaddict posting*

Thanks for all the info everyone. Now can anyone confirm the landlord's claim that all the floors are broken up and it's dangerous to enter? :D
 
I only ever went in there once and being skinny white guys it was kinda intimidating. As soon as we came in this old dude came up to us and said 'I hope you aren't the filth becasuse if you are you won;t get out alive' : o He settled down when we bought him a drink. By the end of the nite we were skinning up and smoking in the pub with him. That was the dodgiest pub I've ever been into. My mate kept on buying fags and then having them nicked. This happened about three times.. It was the kind of place where if you not a local or a 'face' then you are probably best out of there..
 
I used to go to the beauty salon next door to it to have my legs waxed and went there just after it was shut down. I asked the owner about it and she said that there was always trouble with it but one day, when she had had a couple of drinks, she went in and annnounced to the whole pub that she had bought the place next door. Told them it was her business and her dream and they had better not fuck with her (or something to that effect). She said she never personally had any trouble after that but that it certainly was lively. I think she said that someone getting shot sparked the closure.
 
*Brainaddict posting*

Thanks for all the info everyone. Now can anyone confirm the landlord's claim that all the floors are broken up and it's dangerous to enter? :D

This claim was bollocks. I went to quite a few parties in there and unless the squatters had re-fitted the pub, the floors were all in place. Not seen this thread before but I think the parties I went to were a good couple of years after 2006, at least.
 
I used to live around the corner as well.
I think I only went in the DoW once in the 12 years I lived in Brixton (1992-2004), and it wasn't in the least bit welcoming.

We got locked in the Hope & Anchor one evening when there was a shooting outside the DoW, and violence didn't seem unusual towards the end of its time as a pub.

It's sad to lose as a building though. How they're going to get 30 flats in the space where that was I can't imagine.
 
I used to live around the corner as well.
I think I only went in the DoW once in the 12 years I lived in Brixton (1992-2004), and it wasn't in the least bit welcoming.

We got locked in the Hope & Anchor one evening when there was a shooting outside the DoW, and violence didn't seem unusual towards the end of its time as a pub.

It's sad to lose as a building though. How they're going to get 30 flats in the space where that was I can't imagine.
They're also taking over the adjacent timber yard.
 
Massive fucking block of flats coming, with no extra parking, no additional space for new kids in schools, no nothing. Lambeth planning at its most spineless.
 
tbf, parking should not be required in this location - two tube lines and two mainline stations in walking distance, lots of buses.
 
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