Marquis of Wellington pub, Druid Street

... has been boarded up, I see.

Any idea whats happening with it?

It was mentioned in the Southwark News but no reason was given. From observations elsewhere, the brewery landlord is known for selling off pubs at a rate of knots. Probably going to be converted into flats. Who knows.

Shame about the Wellington - it was a family-friendly place where they'd be more than happy to let the kids place on the pool table or to sit out in the rear garden.

The Gregorian on Jamaica Road (just outside of SE1) is also closed, but apparently that's just temporary whilst a new licensee is found or something along those lines.

Ah I hope it's not made into flats. Mind, I never drank there. Never looked busy. Nice building though with potential so it's a pity if that's going to now fall prey to developers.

Given it's on the doorstep of all the food and drink arches, surely there's a good business opportunity there to renovate it and make it into something like the "Bermondsey Marketplace Bar" and stock extremely locally sourced drink from Kernel, 4Pure, BBNo, A+H, SBCo, Jensen, etc, and have food from St. Johns bakery, Neals Yard Dairy, and so on.

Kevinruairi wrote:

Given it's on the doorstep of all the food and drink arches, surely there's a good business opportunity there to renovate it and make it into something like the "Bermondsey Marketplace Bar"...

I think there's enough of that sort of thing already there in the arches and on the Ropewalk[?]. It'd be nice to see it reopen as a traditional boozer (rather than a pretentious 'bar' - this from a teetotaller - with perhaps more of a food offering.

The only time you can drink in those breweries is on a Saturday during the day - I'd like to see a pub where you can buy all those good SE1 beers during the week. Why can't it be a pub with Bermondsey beer and spirits only - what's 'prententious' about that? Supporting local industry instead of beer giants (who dont really care too much about pubs closing) doesn't seem too bad in my eyes.

The Marquis was a 'traditional' boozer and it's closed. People dont tend to want to sit in a pub much all night and drink pints of flat lager any more. Not around that part of town any more anyway (blame the Right To Buy if you ask me). Adapt or die...

I went in here twice, and my girlfriend one other time (this was 2012/2013)and each of the three occasions we were met with some of the more unwelcoming barstaff/landlords going around. Asking for a drink was a burden and asking for a change of tv station to the cricket was akin to drawing a pint of blood. Maybe we caught them on bad days, but I couldn't understand why somebody would go into the service industry when they clearly hated being bothered by the general public.

kevinruari wrote:

The Marquis was a 'traditional' boozer and it's closed.

I don't think the closure is related necessarily to profitability - I believe they did quite a good trade there - and it was generally busy when we went there.

I don't think it's as you say, Kevin, where "people don't tend to want to sit in a pub much...", but rather a case of land values being tempting for brewery landlords. I think a good example of this is shown elsewhere in SE1, where planning permission has been sought for conversion into flats on the basis a pub business isn't viable only then for someone else to step in, often at the last minute, reopen the pub and demonstrate that it is perfectly possible. The traditional boozer model is still a viable one - look at the Hand & Marigold - it just requires a brewery landlord who hasn't constantly got an eye on rising property/land prices.

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My experience couldn't have been more different to NPT's. We went with the kids one afternoon and the bar staff gave the kids crisps and were family friendly. They didn't mind us sitting inside and playing on the pool table with the kids running around and it had a good vibe to it.

The shutters have been taken down down again!
Hope this is a good sign!

There are plenty of pubs where you can drink the fantastic locally brewed beers - the draft house, the dean swift, simon the tanner, shortwave, The Miller etc etc. The problem is they usually cost £6 a pint or more!

Anyway, I've been in the Marquis a few times and didn't have great experiences. The beer wasn't in good nick, the place not particularly clean and a number of the customers were smoking pot in the 'beer garden' area. Once someone came in selling fake dvds to the few punters that were in there. The staff were friendly enough though.