Those Were the Days: Wetherspoons First 10 original pubs tour
The original Muswell Hill Marlers Bar
The February/March 2020 issue of CAMRA’s London Drinker magazine carried details of a tour by a group of hardcore Wetherspoons fans of what they judged to be the first ever 10 Wetherspoons pubs opened.
The tour before Xmas 2019 was designed to mark the 40th anniversary of the first Wetherspoons, Marlers Bar in Muswell Hill.
All of course are in north-east London, once the limits of Tim Martin’s pubs horizon
Only one now, the Rochester Castle in Stoke Newington, remains open as a Spoons. It was due to be sold but according to North London CAMRA is off the market.
I’m not sure the list is really accurate but full marks for trying. The stated aim was to visit the locations of the first 10 actual Wetherspoons pubs when Tim Martin had split business wise from Andrew Marler. Working it out, as anyone including the BBC who contact me about this from time to time who tries soon grasps, is fiendishly difficult.
I’ve drunk in all of them over the decades except what is now the Despard. I would have thought the Tollgate in Turnpike Lane (an ex-Spoons) and the Elbow Room in Tottenham (still open not a Spoons) might well qualify as amongst the earliest.
Further having spent many evenings drinking in Dicks Bar (its opposite Hornsey police station) in Tottenham Lane N8 over the years I’m not so sure it was styled as a Spoons. Still memory is not a great way of remembering things.
Lord Moon of the Mall* (reverted to McMullens)
Furlongs (Marlers, Colney Hatch Lane)
Dicks Bar Crouch End (shop)
Old Suffolk Punch Green Lanes (betting shop)
Mortimer Arms, Harringay (Old Ale Emporium)
Marlers Bar, Stoke Newington (Coach & Horses)
Tanners Hall, Stoke Newington (Rochester Castle)
JJ Moons, Upper Holloway (Landseer Arms)
White Lion of Mortimer Stroud Green (White Lion)
Marlers Bar, Crouch Hill (The Robin)
Elbow Room Crouch End (Small Beer)
Marlers Bar, Archway (Charlotte Despard)
Coronet, Holloway Rd* (open ex-Spoons)
*start and end point not on the original list
I used to drink in the Rochester Castle in the early 80sbut don’t remember it as a Wetherspoons. We left the area in 1986 so as Keith says perhaps memory is an unreliable historic service
Andrew Jones, I believe The Rochester Castle was the very first (real existing old) pub that Wetherspoons bought. All the rest at that time were brand new “manufactured pubs” made from shops & other premises by Wetherspoons the reason was that then the then major breweries would never sell on their pubs A true cartel situation..
You could be correct! I was a member of Wood Green Aquanaughts club and we trained every week at the local pool (now relocated) A very tall lad in his early 20s walked in and said he wanted to learn how to dive. He only came for a few weeks but before he left we were all invited to visit a bar he had opened in Colney hatch Lane. This was Tim Martin, he had knocked two shops into one and created Marlers bar, the pub opposite were not too pleased with this, but it all worked out ok in the end. We did not see Tim at the club after that but we were told he had a second bar in or near Chapel Market. This I am not sure about. If anyone meets Tim Martin (ask him about the diving club)