East End pubs get protection from last orders

Boozer for bruisers: The Marquis of Cornwallis was a favourite with Sixties gangsters

Dozens of the East End’s best known pubs, from the hostelry where Brunel drank while building one of the great Victorian steamships to a hangout of the Krays, are to be granted protection from developers.

Tower Hamlets has identified 37 venues — almost a third of the borough’s pubs — it wants to list as assets of local importance.

The listing gives protection to buildings not considered grand or of important enough historical value to be registered by Historic England. Developers wanting to build around them will have to ensure they preserve the pub and its characteristics. Tower Hamlets is believed to be the first local authority in the country to offer protection to dozens of pubs at the same time.

Among those set to be locally listed are The Ship Inn, which Isambard Kingdom Brunel is said to have drunk at when building the Great Eastern steamship at Burrells Wharf, The Bow Bells, whose haunted bathrooms have attracted ghost hunters globally, and The Marquis of Cornwallis, a favourite with Sixties gangsters. The George in Blackwall, which was visited by film star Jayne Mansfield in 1959 and used as an unofficial meeting place for the Millwall Football Club in the 1890s, is also among those set to be locally listed.

In the past 18 months more than 1,140 pubs in England and Wales have closed down, with many either demolished or converted into homes or offices.

In 2015 the Joiner’s Arms in Shoreditch, one of Britain’s most famous LGBTQ pubs which boasted Alexander McQueen and Christopher Kane as customers, closed to make way for a housing development. The 165-year-old Carlton Arms in Bethnal Green closed in 2018 so flats could be built above. Developers had said they would retain the pub, but it was demolished last September.

Tower Hamlets now has 130 pubs — 75 fewer than in 2001. Neighbouring Newham has seen the biggest decline in the country, with fewer than half the pubs it had in 2001 still open.

Ann Sutcliffe, of Tower Hamlets council, said: “The local list will ensure that heritage assets are protected so they can be enjoyed by future generations.”

The 50 best pubs in London

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