As we start to prepare for our next exhibition, which features brewing and pubs (check our website for the launch date), I thought I’d put pen to paper on how pubs featured in the history of the area, taking the village of Warlingham as an example.
Pubs (even those many hundreds of years old) have had to evolve to survive as society changes. Some pubs have closed to reopen as restaurants or other businesses, some are closed awaiting their fate, and some (like The Good Companions in nearby Hamsey Green) have been completely demolished and are now just a memory.
The oldest pub in Warlingham is The White Lion on the Green, listed Grade 2 with parts dating from the 17th Century. The White Lion would have originated as a small coaching inn, providing food, drink, beds and stabling for weary travellers to and from the South Coast. The pub has undergone many changes over the years, most notably when the original weatherboarded wing on the right-hand side was replaced with a gabled extension in the late 19th century, with mock Tudor beams being added in the 1920s.
Inside, the pub has retained many original features, including an inglenook fireplace. The pub would probably have brewed its own beer, but later, like many pubs in the area, it took its beer from one of the large breweries in Croydon – in the 1920s this was Crowley’s, based in the High Street.
Next door to The White Lion is The Horseshoe. This was set up as a beer house by postmaster George Brooks in 1847, and quickly became a popular meeting place in the village. Our picture this month shows the local hunt meeting outside. The Horseshoe was served by a London brewery: Mann, Crossman and Paulin of Whitechapel. But, by the 1930s, the pub had become too small and the original building was demolished, along with the neighbouring cottages, and the present Horseshoe was built, with an extensive car park at the rear.
Further down Limpsfield Road is the third of Warlingham’s pubs, what was the Hare and Hounds. This was an attractive Edwardian pub serving Charringtons beer, which used to feature beautiful displays of flowers along the frontage. The interior was remodelled in 2005 to attract more customers, but it closed in 2012 to reopen as a coffee bar. Later, this was further remodelled and in 2021 reopened again as a branch of the local Spaghetti Tree chain of Italian restaurants, but is currently closed after a disastrous fire.
Back up to Warlingham Green, and on the west side is what was Warlingham’s second-oldest pub, the 18th Century Leather Bottle. Much-altered and extended over the years, this also probably originated as a small coaching inn, and a photo we have in the museum from the 1920s still prominently advertises ‘good stabling’.
This pub was owned by another long-established Croydon brewery, Nalder and Collyer, who owned another 170-odd pubs in the area. The pub eventually became a Spanish tapas restaurant in the 2010s, but in 2023 was completely refurbished and reopened as Smoque, now a popular Turkish restaurant. Pubs are like anything else, use them or lose them – but, for good or ill, change is inevitable.
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