London's Lost pubs. A new series

The Downham Tavern, no longer stands tall.

Dec 05, 2023

1920’s, slums in Deptford, housing was urgently needed to help those living in such impoverished conditions. 5 miles away from Deptford, farmland sat unused. It was acquired and housing development started in 1924 and was finished in 1930. Downham was created, a small community that could house 29000 residents and named after the London city council member William Hayes Fisher Lord of Downham (in Cambridgeshire where he was born). 29^th May 1930. The Downham Tavern was opened, a public house at the centre of the community, boasting a whopping 34 rooms, two saloon bars, claiming it stake as the biggest public house in England.

Also behind that same public house was a huge events hall called the Bal Tabarin which housed everything from concerts to boxing bouts. Even David Bowe performed there on October the 1^st 1969. Now I’m not sure what the Bal Tabarin would have been named but from my research it’s something to do with France… Sadly. Could be because of the lay out of the Bal, or the type of stuff they showed there. Now, the reason I’m choosing to have this as my first piece back is because I use to live and grew up in Downham.

Throughout my childhood I use to listen to my dad tell me stories of him growing up and frequenting the tavern, as my Nan’s family was one of the Deptfordits that moved to Downham, some 30 years later (circa 1960’s) so my dad and my uncles have vivid memories of the Bal and the Tavern, some funny, and some slightly on the dangerous side.

I would sit there and listen to my dad describe in detail the bar and its layout, a dance hall, a luscious beer garden two saloon style bars that were both 45ft each, which meant that at the time the Downham Tavern had the longest bar in the world, and was the biggest pub in England, again at the time. He reminisced about the times he spent in the Tavern and the Bal, seeing loads of live bands nearly every day. The Tavern was only open on select days of the week, but this changed. One of the many performers that performed there was none other than the late great David Bowie who grew up in Bickley, he played at the Bal in 1969 at the mere age of 22 he was paid £5 for performing here. Speaking to my dad he named so many bands that had played there in their infancy that the list would be vastly long.

There was a rumour that the tavern had to be disguised during World War 2, to stop the Luftwaffe using it as a landmark for bombing runs. Amazing to thing that because of the size of the pub it had to be camouflaged, I wander how the locals found it.

The pub’s brewery was Barclay and Perkins and CO. which then merged in 1955 with The Courage brewery and was later named Courage, Barley and co, they owned this until the pubs subsequent closure in 1997 due to Courage brewery selling the land off to the Co-operative group, this was sadly the end of the tavern and the Bal Tabarin.

Demolished in the late 90’s to make way for a fucking Co-op (massive piss take if you ask me) the Bal Tabarin along with the iconic Downham tavern vanished into the memories of the locals in the area, a sad way to go for something that was so close to the hearts of the community. Although the Co-op was nice enough to have the Downham tavern rebuilt albeit on a much smaller scale. It is half the man it once was, if you look at it now, it feels more like a token effort. They tried to keep the “long bar” look by having it cover most of the back wall as there is an open floor space which is decorated with tables and chairs during the day and a dance floor at night. It is only licenced to hold up to 280 now, compared to 1500 in its heyday, a sad demise if you ask me.

Thank you for reading this, I hope that you have enjoyed it, my dad has soooo many stories that I wish to share with you all, sadly I will not be able to share them all dur to the content that they revolve around, but maybe if I can do it on a censorship free platform I could work around it.

This is the first instalment of my new comeback after a short hiatus.

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