I worked at the Gresham for about six months over the Christmas of 1983. It was a very handsome pub, but when trouble went down it really did. I remember one disgrunted customer turning up one Sunday afternoon and putting all the windows through with a sledgehammer. He climbed through the public bar door howling he wanted to kill the Governor. We were eventually rescued from the flat by one solitary copper who had only just left Hendon. I also remember a very surreal bottle fight. Friday and Saturday nights would be heaving and they were a really great bunch. Are the market boys teetotal now, I wonder? There was one large gent who had a couple of stalls, he used to bring in their takings in a brown paper bag, like apples. I remember seeing it with a pile of rubbish and sweeping it all into the bin, not knowing what was in it. Only the once, mind..... I've spent several years in the trade but have never since been asked for light and bitter or brown and bitter.
Trudi Greenshields (September 2013)
The Gresham, Stockwell
