New lease of life for Crown and Anchor, Brixton Road

By
Tim Dickens
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GASTRO: The Crown and Anchor is to re-open selling craft beers - image from Google Streetview

An historic Brixton pub is set to reopen its doors this month promising a “huge” range of beers and real ale.

The Crown and Anchor, in Brixton Road, near Slade Gardens, will launch on 19 April after nine months of preparation that included evicting squatters and replacing the entire roof of the building.

It is the first project south of the river for north London pub owner Martin Harley, who runs the successful Jolly Butcher and Rose and Crown pubs in Stoke Newington and the Wrestlers in Highgate.

Harley told the Blog today: “It is a new start for us and for the pub and we’re trying to create a real buzz about the place.

“We’re going to have craft beers from local London breweries as well as from Belgium and the west coast of America. It won’t be for everyone but I hope people at least come down and have a look.”

An archive photo from 1956 bills the pub as the “first rock and roll club in Britain”. And it is said to have been a local haunt of the artist Austin O. Spare, who lived around the corner in Wynne Road until the 1960s.

The Stockwell Park and Robsart Village masterplan involves 550 new homes being built near the pub, which will include a mixture of privately owned and socially rented accommodation.

Read more about on the pub on the Urban 75 website here.

What are your memories of the Crown and Anchor? Email newsdesk@brixtonblog.com.

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3 COMMENTS

  2. Graet news that this pub is reopening again – I met with Martin last week and he’s passionate about it making a positive contribution to the local area.

    Just to correct something in the above post, however. The Slade Gardens masterplan does not involve the building of any housing, as it is a masterplan to improve the park and the park alone. New housing is being built in the area – I just don’t want people to think that the plans for the park involve the building of any housing, as they don’t.

    Thanks.

    • Hi Cllr, thanks for putting the record straight over Slade Gardens masterplan, which doesn’t include any plans for new housing. I have amended the article above accordingly.
      I used to work for Martin at the Rose and Crown when I was a student – and that was a brilliant pub. I hope he is able to recreate his success south of the river and inject a little energy into a somewhat tired old boozer! TD

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