End of an era: Wetherspoons to shut last remaining original Haringey pub
Wetherspoons has announced that the Tollgate pub in Turnpike Lane, London N8 is up for sale. Originally a car showroom it opened in 1989 and is the last remaining original Spoons pub in Haringey.
Wetherspoons started out in 1979 at Marlers Bar, Colney Hatch Lane Muswell Hill. That was then owned by Andrew Marler but Tim Martin soon took over and started to build a Wetherspoons pub empire almost entirely in the London Borough of Haringey. Pubs included, the White Lion of Mortimer in Stroud Green, the Moon Under Water on the Roundway, Tottenham, the Elbow Room, Tottenham, the Goat in West Green Rd and the Old Suffolk Punch in Green Lanes Harringay. Most are no longer pubs and Wetherspoons now has just two outlets in Haringey, in Wood Green and Muswell Hill.
I was a regular in the Tollgate for many years, not least because until the last 10 years or so, there were very few reliable outlets for cask beer in the area.
Of course Spoons and Tim Martin have many detractors, understandably so. However pubs like the Tollgate provided beer and food at prices which the mainly not so well off clientele could afford. Its on the market as a pub but one wonders whether any successor will want to repeat the Spoons model in 2022
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