Over the bar of a 200-year-old pub in southeast London hangs a sign: “For the people of East Greenwich, by the people of East Greenwich.”
What might seem like a pithy slogan is, in fact, the truth. The Star of Greenwich, which almost closed for good last year, was saved by the local community after three residents, all of them with full-time jobs, came to the rescue of their “local”.
“Once these things are gone, they never come back,” says James Gadsby Peet, who joined two friends to take over running the pub. What matters here isn't the drinks, he says, but rather preserving “a community space for people to come together.”
Directors and co-founders of the Star of Greenwich community pub are Lisa Donohoe, left, James Gadsby Peet and Kirsty Dunlop.
(Joshua Bright / For The Times)
Had the trio not decided to save the Star, it would have become one of many pubs in the British capital that closed at a record rate last year. Hit by a persistent cost of living crisis and post-pandemic economic woes, 383 London pubs called in final orders in the first six months of 2023, compared to 380 in all of 2022.
Earlier this month, four sister pubs in central London were put up for sale, including one believed to have been frequented by two of Jack the Ripper's victims, highlighting the struggles of an industry synonymous with life British.
The Star (formerly the Star and Garter, before the new team renamed it) has been serving pints since the early 19th century, and the dark wooden beams inside are thought to have come from its original construction. But not even its long history was enough to guarantee its future until the community rallied around it.
Pubs across Britain, not just London, are suffering a worse fate. Government figures show that from 2000 to 2019, the last full year of business before the COVID-19 pandemic, 13,600 pubs across the country, or 22% of the total, closed their doors for good. Last week, the British Beer and Pub Association. warned that without financial support, another 2,000 may have disappeared by the end of this year, which could result in the loss of 25,000 jobs and 288 million fewer pints.
Financial pressures aside, pubs – which have long been the social glue in British communities – are increasingly falling victim to changing patterns of work and leisure. The “old drunks,” as they are affectionately known, are struggling to compete in a world where people work from multiple locations at varying hours and have countless entertainment options on their phones and computers.
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1. Musicians and customers chat at the Star of Greenwich. James Gadsby Peet said he decided to help run the pub to preserve “a community space for people to come together”. 2. Rolo enjoys a beer at the Star of Greenwich. 3. The Star of Greenwich was nearly closed before the community stepped in to save it. (Photographs by Joshua Bright / For The Times)
Charo Havermans, a historian at University College London who studies the role of pubs in public life, says such establishments remain vital and inclusive meeting places at a time when religion is in decline and communication is increasingly more virtual.
“There is a real sense of community that disappears when the pubs disappear,” he says. “The meaning of history is lost.”
Given the crucial role pubs have played in local neighbourhoods, it is perhaps unsurprising that some communities have stepped in to keep the lights on.
When the Step pub in north London closed in 2020, there was an outcry when developers tried to buy it, prompting four-year resident Dan Jones to consider a different solution: “Why don't we try to buy it? “as a community?”
He began handing out leaflets and, within weeks, “quickly realized there was a huge appetite” to implement his plan. Hundreds of people pledged to invest in a fundraising campaign, and within four weeks the effort raised $357,000 (well above the goal of $319,000), which was supplemented by a government grant of $382,000.
“We were taken by surprise at the speed at which we were able to raise the money and the fact that we surpassed the goal,” Jones says.
He attributes this to the Step being more than just a place to drink. “It was the center of the area… so people really missed it when it disappeared,” he says. “And that's why the feeling arose to bring it back.”
Stanley the border collie is a favorite at the Star.
(Joshua Bright / For The Times)
Another pub savings initiative, CityStack, allows bar-goers to pay $32 for a special beer coaster that gives them $13 off bills of $25 or more at participating establishments. The discount is valid for up to 10 visits.
At the Star in East Greenwich, Gadsby Peet admits that, financially, things are “really tight”, even though the community-run pub only has to pay for staff behind the counter, with no costs management, and there is no pressure to make a profit. The pub currently welcomes customers from Thursday to Sunday, as the team “can only open [at] the times in which we can afford to open.”
Good business over Christmas has meant that “at the moment, it's sustainable”, he says, although “you never know exactly what's going to happen”.
The crowd on a Saturday night is a mix of friends, a handful of solitary drinkers, and a young couple on a date, pondering whether to head to the jukebox or the dartboard. Bar staff know regulars by name and are ready to chat in a part of London best known for its role in maritime history and as the birthplace of Tudor notables, including Henry VIII.
The pub was open until 2021, when its license was suspended following a stabbing outside. After news circulated that the building was going to be sold, Gadsby Peet and Kirsty Dunlop started chatting outside their children's school and decided that, together with another friend, Lisa Donohoe, they would put together a proposal to save it.
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1. A sign above the bar of the Star of Greenwich pub. 2. Pete Ribers throws a dart at an old board that still bears the old name of the Greenwich Star. 3. Alan Campbell, left, and Rob Calnan play the game of ring and hook. (Photographs by Joshua Bright / For The Times)
The building's owners “bought the vision,” Gadsby Peet recalls. “They saw this as a great way to use some of their assets for the good of the community.”
The team still has to ensure that the rent for the premises is paid each month. Gadsby Peet admits that juggling the Star, his job as the head of a web design agency, and his young family has been more challenging than he imagined.
“At first you don't realize how much [work] that's how it will be, so the first thing is, 'We'll send a couple of emails,'” he says. “And before you know it, you have a lot of people interested.”
His main measure of success comes at the end of the week, when the Star “sees[s] people who work on the railways… along with people who work in Canary Wharf [a business district] …next to people who have been drinking here since the 1950s. That, to me, is where the really wonderful things happen.”
Pat Murray, 86, has been a loyal customer since he was in his early 20s. He remembers going to the pub when he and his wife “were courting. Since then I have brought my children, grandchildren and now great-grandchildren to the pub. “It’s a family tradition for us.”
Keeping prices low (a pint of beer costs from $6, compared to $9 in many London pubs) and offering the space free of charge to community groups and activities, including kids' clubs, Italian classes and local folk musicians, has eased concerns about gentrification and fostered new connections, says Gadsby Peet.
James Gadsby Peet admits that, financially, things are “very difficult” at the Star. Behind him are co-founders Lisa Donohoe and Kirsty Dunlop.
(Joshua Bright / For The Times)
He adds that opening the Star's doors to a broader group has allowed locals to “meet people they wouldn't otherwise meet.” “We believe the more this happens, the more cohesive the community will become and the more enjoyable a place it will be to live.”
A September report by Co-operatives UK, an organization representing co-operative businesses, showed they play “an important role in community development” and that community-owned pubs have increased by 62.6% in the last five years. .
But some pubs in London's shopping centers have found it harder to weather the current storms. The rise of remote work, with many employees now going to the office only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, has significantly reduced traffic at neighboring hospitality businesses. At the end of last year, figures showed office occupancy in central London had reached its highest level since the pandemic, averaging 50.9%, but that is still between 10% and 30%. lower than before the coronavirus arrived.
When the first national lockdown was announced in March 2020, “everyone thought it was just going to be a blip,” says Lorraine Crawford, who took over the Center Page public house near St Paul's Cathedral, in the London's historic financial district in 2005. But his business “fell into a tailspin overnight. She…she never gained momentum again.”
Crawford and her husband, who at that stage had already been in the industry for four decades, “tried everything” to keep the place afloat, she says, but paying $127,000 a year in rent, along with $45,000 in business taxes, was “ awful”. “We were in debt all the time.”
People walk past the illuminated Star pub. “There is a real sense of community that disappears when pubs disappear,” says Charo Havermans, a historian at University College London who studies the role of pubs in public life. “The meaning of history is lost.”
(Joshua Bright / For The Times)
If we add to this the inflation of alcoholic beverages (which at the end of last year reached 9.9%, the highest since the early 90s), the only thing left to do “was to get out of there gracefully, which was very sad,” says Crawford. “We were more of a family because we were just a small business.”
The Center Page closed more than a year ago.
“In our industry, nothing has ever been the same,” laments Crawford. “And I don't think I ever will.”
Lytton is a special correspondent.
