The events of Saturday March 7, 2020 are firmly etched into the hearts and minds of all Brentford supporters.
Unaware of the impact the pandemic would soon have on society, it turned out to be the last time they were able to attend a match at Griffin Park, the club’s home for 116 years. It was a joyous occasion as Thomas Frank’s side beat Sheffield Wednesday 5-0, with Josh Dasilva scoring twice, while Bryan Mbeumo, Emiliano Marcondes and Tariqe Fosu also found the back of the net.
Fans were frustrated they were unable to give their old ground a proper send-off, due to lockdown restrictions over the months that followed, but they had the prospect of moving into their new 17,250 seater stadium on Lionel Road to get excited about. However, for the four pubs that sat on the corner of Griffin Park, that date represents a watershed moment — it was the final time they were able to profit from the booming business that was generated on a matchday.
The Griffin, The New Inn, The Princess Royal and The Brook became synonymous with Brentford. They were an integral part of home fans’ weekly ritual, but for opposition fans they held a mythological status — sampling a pint from each of the venues became a rite of passage. The fact that different sets of supporters could mix in the same venue was a novelty.
Over two years have passed since that fateful day in 2020 and it appears that the club’s association with the infamous four pubs is already beginning to fade. So, The Athletic set off to discover what has happened to them since…
The Princess Royal was so much more than a watering hole for Brentford supporters. It was a safe haven to share your hopes and dreams about the new season, discuss transfer targets, bask in the euphoria of an injury-time winner or shed a few tears following another defeat in the playoffs. Before he became Brentford’s chief executive in 2019, lifelong fan Jon Varney would drink in the pub before home matches.
But if you walk along Ealing Road now, you will be greeted by the sight of a dilapidated building. Boarded up since the previous owners left two years ago, having concluded it was no longer viable, and with a faded “For Sale” sign outside the front entrance, The Princess Royal’s future has been unclear for months. At one stage squatters had moved in and there was an issue with damp before rumours circulated that supermarket chains Sainsbury’s and Tesco were in competition for the site, which had been valued at £1.2 million.
However, The Athletic can reveal that the property was purchased by The Armenian Church Trust. Zorik Gasparian is one of the trustees of the church who completed a deal for the site in February. With building work commencing on Monday, they hope the site will be ready by November and they intend to honour its heritage.
“It is going to be turned into the centre for our church,” says Gasparian. “It will accommodate the church’s office and we will hold activities for the community including bible reading classes and dance, music and art lessons. Our architect is trying to keep as many of the original features as possible. We are saving the pictures from the pub so we can hang them up on the wall once it’s finished.”
When away fans arrived at Brentford train station, their first destination was The Brook due to its proximity. Founded as The Royal Oak beer house in 1787, the site was renovated by Tim Rider and his wife Tosh when they took over in 2019. They now serve a selection of craft beers and host guest chef nights as they try to reinvent their image and cater to local families within the community.
It doesn’t show any live sport and there is no Brentford memorabilia hanging on the walls. Rider insists the business will survive, but it’s impossible to ignore the huge impact that Brentford leaving Griffin Park has had on them.
“We have lost £100,000 worth of takings,” he says. “Each game we would make between £5,000 to £6,000. The away fans don’t come at all anymore. I close on a Saturday during the day now because it is pointless opening. Some mates of mine are Crystal Palace fans and we had 12 of them in the pub the other week — no other fans came up to the front door.
“I think the club could have done an awful lot more (to help). Before it all happened, I had an idea about all of the pubs hiring Routemaster buses. There’s a company in Brentford that could have done this and I spoke to them in advance. Just taking people to the stadium and bringing them back to, let’s face it, the heart of Brentford. Now the heart of Brentford seems to be Kew. Brentford haven’t thought much about the history of the club. Nearly 120 years of using the four pubs has just gone.”
Gerhard Peleschka and his wife Claire have been running The Griffin, which is situated on the corner of Braemar Road and Brook Road, for nearly a decade. The pub is entrenched in Brentford’s history as it was the inspiration for the stadium’s name and at one point acted as their headquarters. After Griffin Park was demolished, the pair retrieved two signs from the stadium and their son’s exact seat which now hang on a wall in the beer garden.
Peleschka was born in Austria and he developed a close bond with Uwe Rosler who managed the club between 2011 and 2013. Rosler, from Germany, and his family used to make frequent visits for special servings of wienerschnitzel and goulash. Brentford’s owner Matthew Benham would occasionally pop in too.
Instead of being overwhelmed by the sheer number of people that would turn up on a matchday, Peleschka and his team revelled in the “mayhem” of it all. “It was like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde,” he tells The Athletic. “On a Friday night we would have live bands and comedy acts. Everything was organised and settled. On a Saturday it was absolute madness. On one of our best days we sold six and a half thousand pints of beer. It was incredible, but this cannot be your only revenue stream. You need to be busy throughout the week to have a successful pub.”
The Griffin sold that impressive amount of alcohol on April 14 2014 when Brentford secured promotion to the Championship with a 1-0 victory over Preston North End. Conservative estimates put their takings for that day at £26,000. When the club officially moved into the Brentford Community Stadium in September 2020, Peleschka thought those days were over and that people would stop coming. However, help has come from an unlikely source.
“We got hit badly by COVID-19 and Brentford moving” he says. “Luckily all of the home fans have come back. But what we miss now on matchdays we make up from London Irish (who co-share Brentford’s new stadium) fans the next weekend. The knock-on effect has been very good for us because it’s brought in different clientele. It hasn’t had an impact at all so we cannot complain. Towards the end of the season we are actually getting busier.”
Brian Hogan took over The New Inn in 2010 and he has witnessed first-hand Brentford’s development from a club battling it out at the bottom of League One to a side rubbing shoulders with Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal in the Premier League. Dean Smith, Bryan Mbeumo and Jon Egan have visited the establishment over the years, but it feels unlikely similar visits will happen again following the club’s move.
“We have lost all of the away fans,” Hogan tells The Athletic. “They go down to the pubs in Kew Bridge. But we do get supporters coming in from teams that visited us in the Championship like Newcastle (United) and Aston Villa. The home fans are still using it because it is only a 10-minute walk to the new stadium.”
Leaving Griffin Park marked the end of an era for Brentford. The ground was a “handbrake” on the club’s commercial potential according to Varney and moving has allowed them to generate greater amounts of money on a matchday. The Brentford Community Stadium is a modern facility befitting a team that has aspirations of reaching Europe in the future. It is just a shame that they had to leave the four pubs behind, but they will always hold a special place in the club’s story.
should be a good atmosphere.
theathletic.com
