Do You Recognise This Mystery Pub?

Published on: 30 Jul, 2014
Updated on: 31 Jul, 2014

A plea for help from the National Brewery Centre is hard to resist, there might be free samples, so when the following email message was received we agreed to try and assist, even though we felt it was a long shot:

Dear Mr Giles

I work at The National Brewery Centre in Burton on Trent and recently we discovered this photograph (attached) in our collection.

The mystery photo. Any ideas?

We were wondering if any of your readers can recognise this hotel/public house and if so provide a bit of background history/information.

One of our volunteers has visited the area recently but could not locate the building-only the Tillingbourne stream!

Any detail would be helpful.
Many thanks,

Vanessa Winstone
Collections Officer, The National Brewery Centre

David Rose, who has seen more old photos of Guildford than perhaps anyone, has checked the photo and does not recognise it at a Guildford scene. It looks more like the London suburbs. So perhaps the Tillingbourne label is incorrect or there is another Tillingbourne.

In a subsequent email Vanessa Winstone added:

“It was in a box with Charrington property records if that’s any help? It also looks like it was taken in the 1930s and the pub/hotel may be called the Queen Victoria (it looks like an outline on the pub sign).

Can anyone help?

Responses to Do You Recognise This Mystery Pub?

John Lomas Reply

July 30, 2014 at 2:01 pm

Something about this reminds me of the area between Ewell and Kingston, or around that area.

The black and white markings on the lamp-posts might suggest WW2 as well.

It looks to be quite a large main road considering it has islands at the junction, which were surely quite rare in suburbia in either the 30’s or 40’s.
David Rose Reply

July 30, 2014 at 2:30 pm

Seems like a bit of a red herring thrown to us here.

If the National Brewery Centre looks into its archives it might see that there were never many Charrington’s pubs in the Guildford area.

Friary and Courage reigned supreme here and I think the Hare and Hounds at Rydes Hill was alone in being a Charrington’s tied house.

I think the photo might somewhere within the London metropolitan area – it could be anywhere from Worcester Park round to Wembley.

I think the National Brewery Centre is the name of what was the Bass Museum at Burton-on-Trent. If so, well worth a visit.

This mystery might be a job for the Brewery History Society. It has great records of former breweries and pubs.
Mike Bennett Reply

July 30, 2014 at 10:29 pm

I wish all hunts were this simple! The clue is on the card – if you search for ‘TillingBourne London’ on Google maps you get Tillingbourne Way at the junction of the North Circular (A406) and Regents Park Road (A598), just where the A1 goes South.

The block of flats is surely the same as in the photo. The map shows it as Queensborough Court. The pub has gone and the space is now occupied by a Holiday Inn Express.

A trip to the area would then find someone with local knowledge and the remaining mystery of the pub’s history would be solved.

Surely worth a half – half a speedboat perhaps?

Thank you. Well done. Half a pint certainly, if the National Brewery Centre oblige. Half a speed boat – no! Ed
Chris Townsend Reply

August 1, 2014 at 5:59 pm

Helped by Mike Bennett, I find the building was the Queen’s Head, Finchley. From http://www.pubology.co.uk/pubs/2602.html

Status: Closed
Address: 248 Regents Park Road, N3 3HN
Former name(s): Queen’s Head Hotel,Queen’s Head
Former address: Church End (1861)
Dates open: [1826]-2010
Owner: Enterprise Inns (former) Courage (former)

An old photo is here:

http://www.memoriespictures.co.uk/londonnorth_files/finchley/Queens%20Head%20fi123.jpg
Chris Townsend Reply

August 2, 2014 at 9:06 am

The Queen’s Head building appears to be still standing, at the junction of Regents Park Road and East End Road (which has an old ornate street sign). Is it possible it’s the pub in the mystery photo, in view of the pub sign, or was there another one at Mike’s location? Needs more work, I think.
Chris Townsend Reply

August 2, 2014 at 11:21 am

I’m now convinced the mystery photo is of the Golden Eagle, 58 Regents Park Road, Finchley N3, at Mike’s location, the junction of Regents Park Road and the North Circular.

See: http://www.closedpubs.co.uk/london/n3_finchley_goldeneagle.html

Old maps online suggest the pub may be 1950s or later. Can anyone find another image online?
Mike Bennett Reply

August 2, 2014 at 1:28 pm

As Chris has found, I agree that its the pub formerly known as The Golden Eagle or latterly Goldies, before it was demolished in late 2002. It may have had other names earlier. The Holiday Inn was constructed in 2006 and opened in 2007. The address was 58 Regent’s Park Road but I too cannot locate any other photos of the pub.

The location is the North side of Henly’s Corner that was massively rebuilt during 2011.

The postcode is N3 3JN and this is now part of Finchley that extends down to the North Circular. As there seems to be an active Finchley Local History group, the Brewery Centre should be able to find more material from them.

What a team! Halves all round…
K Knowles (former and last Landlord) Reply

February 2, 2016 at 9:22 pm

As the last Landlord of the Golden Eagle before it closed down, I can tell you it is not The Golden Eagle or “Goldies”.

The Eagle was built in 1959 and was a two storey building, the one in the photo is three storey. However it does look like the flats next to it and the area looks correct, it was even a Bass/Charrington pub.

It looks to me to be the building that was on the site before the Eagle. Another point the Eagle was set further back/up the site than this one, it was not level with the flats and had a garden that occupied that part of the site.

I never knew a pub occupied the site previous as locals told me it was an empty site for years before the Eagle was built, so perhaps war damaged? I hope this helps.