A short history of the pubs on the Isle of Dogs

I've had a bit of a rant in my recent blogs about the Chancellor's escalator tax on beer.  While he appears to have axed it in the last budget I thought I would share with you an example of what higher prices have done to the pub trade.

The George is a fine example of an Isle of Dogs pub located near to Crossharbour station on the Docklands Light Railway.   The Landlord has four regular ales on at all times as well as the occasional guest beer.  The regular selection currently consists of Fullers London Pride, Young's bitter, Timothy Taylor's Landlord and Deuchers IPA from the Caledonian Brewery in Edinburgh.

The pub has a cosy lounge with plenty of pictures depicting bygone scenes of the docks and buildings of the surrounding area.  On Sunday however I noticed a new picture that I had not seen before.

This shows a map of all the pubs that existed at one time or another on the Isle of Dogs (excluding the new developments at Canary Wharf and Harbour Exchange).

 To save your eye sight there are 42 pubs listed on the map.  This is an impressive list by any means until you realise that of those 42  only nine are still open.  That's over three quarters of the pubs now closed!! 

Of the other 35 I can remember at least eight closing during my short tenure living in this part of London.  A few such as the Cubitt Arms which closed last year have been converted to residential property and retain a hint to their former lives in the architecture and signage but many have been knocked down and replaced by large modern developments. 

While changing demographics and other factors may also have played their part to the closure of these pubs I for one do not wish to see any more call time, so the scrapping of the tax is to be welcomed.

I'm pleased to say that despite this gloomy news, there has been something of a renaissance for the remaining pubs on the Isle, with a number of them recently changing hands, being refurbished and putting on a decent selection of cask ales.

For those of you interested in the history of closed pubs in the area can I recommend the following link:-

www.closedpubs.co.uk/london/e14_poplar.html

The picture above has been personalised for the George but if anyone could source me a copy of the original print I'd be extremely grateful, please contact me below.

Business on the football front resumes as normal later in the week with a visit by Bolton Wanderers to the Valley.