Over the decades, many of Wandsworth’s pubs have vanished, either demolished or converted into shops and flats.
Once the heart of local communities, these venues now live on only in the memories of long-time residents.
In 2024, over 400 pubs closed across the UK, with 55 of them in London.
Despite this decline, London still boasts 3,470 pubs, preserving its rich pub culture.
Sam Cullen’s new book, London’s Lost Pubs (£20, Pen and Sword), delves into the histories of over 200 vanished pubs, using online reviews and pub guides dating back to the 1920s to resurrect these forgotten places and share their stories once again.
Sam Cullen’s new book, London’s Lost Pubs (£20, Pen and Sword), explores the histories of over 200 vanished pubs, drawing on online reviews and pub guides dating back to the 1920s to bring these forgotten places back to life.
Cullen, whose favourite lost pubs include the Zeitgeist in Lambeth and Sun and Dove in Camberwell, said: "As much as it's sad that these pubs don't exist anymore, I wanted to make sure they are not lost to time by telling their stories, their history, and some of the quirky characters who drank in them.
"Pubs can tell you so much about social and cultural history. The book is a celebration of pubs that existed as a vehicle for looking at aspects of London life.
"My criteria for inclusion was that they closed within the past twenty-five years, and there was an interesting story to tell."
Lost Pubs by Sam Cullen was published by Pen and Sword Books on January 31.
Here is a look at some of the most memorable lost pubs from Wandsworth which feature in the new book.
The Beaufoy Bar – 18 Lavender Hill
This traditional mid-Victorian Battersea pub found new energy in the 1980s as a hub for reggae music, featuring DJ David ‘Ram Jam’ Rodigan of Capital Radio.
Alongside the music, it served Caribbean food like jerk chicken and curried goat, and even hosted "exotic dancers," as some pub reviews of the time politely put it.
In 1998, a bid for a 2am licence was rejected, with Sadiq Khan, then a Wandsworth councillor, voicing residents' concerns.
The pub hit the headlines again in 2007 when regulars fended off an armed gang by throwing chairs.
Later known as the Beaufoy Bar, it kept its Caribbean influence before closing in 2012.
The ground floor has since been converted into a yoga studio.
The Castle – 115 Battersea High Street
Two pubs named The Castle have stood on this site on Battersea High Street.
The first reportedly dated back to 1600 before being demolished in 1963 for council flats.
Shortly before its demolition, an old wooden pub sign was rediscovered.
During the teardown, workers uncovered a hoard of gold coins, later declared treasure and sent to the British Museum—except for two, which were buried under the new pub’s foundations.
The second Castle opened in 1965, with the old sign displayed.
Though praised for its atmosphere, the 1960s architecture was frequently criticised, with Time Out once describing it as "uninspiring outside, but as warm and welcoming as a St Bernard in the snow”.
The pub lasted until 2013 before being replaced by a block of flats.
Despite plans for a new pub on the ground floor, the space was ultimately turned into a children’s nursery.
The Castle – 270 Putney Bridge Road
Another Castle pub in Wandsworth, this one in Putney, belonged to the Young’s brewery and had a long history.
The earliest references to a pub on this site date back to 1758, with Young’s taking ownership in 1831.
The pub was expanded in the 1880s before being demolished in 1935 to make way for a new building, which opened in 1938.
Tragically, this second Castle was destroyed in a bombing raid during the Blitz on April 19, 1941, killing 53 people.
A temporary pub operated on the site for many years until a new Castle was built and opened in 1959.
The third and final Castle remained a fixture until it closed on March 3, 2003.
It was demolished as part of the Putney Riverside development by St George.
A new pub was opened in 2004 under a new name: The Boathouse.
The Chopper/Battersea Bar – 58 York Road
Opened in the 1970s, The Chopper was a distinctive Battersea pub, located just a stone’s throw from London’s only helicopter facility, Battersea Heliport.
It once had a model airplane on its flat roof, making it an eye-catching local landmark.
In its later years, it was rebranded as the Battersea Bar, earning praise in a 2010 Wandsworth Times article for its transformation into a vibrant live music venue with top-quality food.
The pub’s owners, Admiral Taverns, expressed confidence in its future success.
This revival didn’t last, and the pub was sold to a property company in 2013.
It was left derelict for several years and ultimately demolished in 2019.
It has since been replaced by a 14-storey block of flats.
The Crane – 14 Armoury Way
Claiming to be the oldest pub in Wandsworth, The Crane dated back to 1748, though the building itself saw partial reconstruction in the 1920s.
Given its location near the historic Ram Brewery, it was a Young’s pub.
The Crane also had a reputation for paranormal activity, with reports of two resident ghosts—a small boy in knickerbockers haunting the bar and a lady in the attic who was said to pass through walls.
CAMRA member Roger Protz praised it in 1989 for retaining a country inn feel despite its proximity to the bustling South Circular Road, calling it a "delightfully unspoilt street corner boozer”.
In the 2000s, it was rebranded as The Armoury before reverting to The Crane under Young’s Ram Pub Company.
Despite its slightly unpromising main road location, it remained a friendly and welcoming pub through the late 2010s.
The pub survived the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic but ultimately closed at the end of 2021 after Young’s announced it was winding down the Ram Pub Company.
The Haberdashers Arms – 47 Culvert Road
The Haberdashers dated back to at least 1871 and managed to survive the large-scale redevelopment of Battersea in the 1950s and 1960s.
One of its most distinctive features was the mural painted on its side wall in the late 1980s by the Battersea artist Brian Barnes.
Titled Battersea in Perspective, the mural depicted an aerial view of the area, featuring Battersea Park and its Peace Pagoda, as well as a series of former local MPs, from John Burns to Alf Dubs.
It was officially unveiled in August 1988 by Lord Douglas Jay, who had served as MP for Battersea North for nearly 40 years.
By 2001, landlady Maureen Courtney described The Haberdashers as a no-frills community pub where everyone knows everyone in a local newspaper feature.
Later that year, she sought help in contacting Brian Barnes to discuss cleaning and restoring the mural.
Word got back to Barnes, and he returned to refresh his work.
The Haberdashers closed in the early 2010s, but Barnes’ mural remains.
The Highwayman – 13 Petersfield Rise
The Highwayman was built in 1959 to serve residents of the newly constructed Alton East estate on Roehampton Hill.
Designed with the simple, angular architecture typical of the era, it was later featured in the 2008 CAMRA book London Heritage Pubs – An Inside Story by Geoff Brandwood and Jane Jephcote.
They noted the pub’s declining fortunes, pointing out that one of its two rooms had already been closed, a sign of changing drinking habits in the area.
The pub ultimately closed in 2009 and remained standing until 2014, when it was demolished and replaced by flats.
Its name was a nod to local history, referencing the highwaymen who once roamed Putney Heath and the surrounding areas in the 18th century.
One of the most infamous was Jerry Abershaw, who was captured and executed in 1795.
According to Brandwood and Jephcote, Abershaw’s final request was to be hanged without his boots on, defying his mother’s prediction that he would die with his shoes on.
The Maltese Cat – Aubyn Square
The Maltese Cat opened on December 1, 1961, as a post-war Young’s pub, designed by Stuart Archer, who was also behind the Castle in Battersea.
Archer had been awarded the George Cross for his bravery during the Second World War.
The pub’s name was inspired by Rudyard Kipling's book The Man Who Would Be King, which featured a polo pony, tying in with the fact that the pub was located near the site of Roehampton’s former polo ground.
The pub was featured in the Nicholson pub guides of the 1980s and 1990s, with praise for its floodlit patio garden.
The Maltese Cat closed by 2005 and was demolished shortly thereafter to make way for flats.
Montague Arms – 3 Medfield Street
The last of the Roehampton trio and by far the oldest as it is thought to date back to the 17th century.
It received a Grade II listing from English Heritage in 1983 but closed for the last time in 2005.
Its listed status was completely ignored by the property company Carrington Sears which acquired it in late 2009 and set about gutting the interior with the intention of turning it into flats.
Wandsworth Council stepped in, ordering the company to restore it to its original condition with the then leader Eddie Lister stating that the pub had been “a central focal point in Roehampton for centuries”.
Its listed status is partly why the building remains standing today.
The Original Woodman – 42-44 Battersea High Street
The Original Woodman was one of two pubs on the same road with almost identical names.
Despite the "Original" moniker, the other pub, simply called The Woodman, was there first.
The two establishments, separated by only a few buildings, seemed to coexist peacefully, each catering to a different clientele.
In a 1983 feature by the South London Press, the landlords of both pubs claimed they never tried to steal each other's customers, and there was even a bit of humour in the design of their pub signs.
The Original Woodman closed in 2003 and transformed into Le QuecumBar, a jazz venue specializing in Gypsy Swing music, billed as London’s World Premier Gypsy Swing Jazz Venue.
While it managed to survive through the Covid lockdowns, a dispute with the landlord over a new lease led to its closure.
The future of the building is uncertain.
The Plough – 518 Wandsworth Road
The Plough once served as the taproom for the nearby Plough Brewery, which operated until 1935 before being converted into offices.
The pub itself split from the brewery in the early 1920s when it was acquired by the well-known Wandsworth institution, Young's.
They continued to operate the pub for nearly 90 years until the early 2010s, when it was sold and transformed into a cocktail bar named Mist on Rocks.
The venue was leased by the same company behind The Artesian Well, a nearby bar/club that closed in 2014 due to complaints of anti-social behaviour.
The Raven – 140 Westbridge Road
The Raven was one of Battersea’s most historic pubs, dating back to the late 17th century.
It was even rumoured to have been visited by King Charles II after The Restoration.
The pub originally served as a coaching inn, and there were tales of secret passageways beneath the building.
The back area reportedly remained laid out as a stable as late as the 1950s.
In 1951, it was granted Grade II listing, and by the 1960s, it had earned the title of Battersea’s oldest pub after the original Castle was demolished.
In the 1999 Time Out guide, it was described as a “tranquil pub” with low ceilings and dark timbers.
After closing in the early 2010s, the building was transformed into an Italian restaurant called Melanzana.
The White Lion – 14-16 High Street
The White Lion remains a key feature of the High Street, despite being empty for several years.
The current building, dating back to 1887, sits on a site that had an inn of the same name as far back as 1636.
It was suggested that the stone lion at the top of the building might have been salvaged from its 17th-century predecessor.
In 1895, the pub boasted American bowling and skittles saloons.
By the late 20th century, the White Lion became a hotspot for post-punk and new wave music, hosting gigs for up-and-coming artists such as Gary Numan and X-Ray Spex.
There’s even a full 1977 concert of X-Ray Spex available on YouTube from this venue.
The building received Grade II listing in 1983.
In 1990, it appeared in the Nicholson London Pub Guide, with its collection of ties highlighted as an interesting feature.
However, by the mid-90s, the pub transformed, losing its traditional identity as the Lion and becoming part of the growing Slug and Lettuce chain.
In the following years, the space went through various chain bar identities, including The Littern Tree, Walkabout, and eventually Wahoo.
Wahoo closed in 2015, and the building has remained derelict since.
