Thirsty pub-goers displayed their appetite for a community boozer in Walworth at a well-attended event last week.
The Walworth Community Pub group has been searching for permanent premises to house their dream drinking hole – a pub owned and run by the community – for several years.
That search is ongoing so, in the meantime, the group organised a get-together at The Huntsman and Hounds, Walworth, on Thursday, November 30.
A night of music, poetry and beers, it was a reminder that the community’s dream of establishing a new boozer is alive and well.
Matthew Meynell, co-founder of the Walworth Community Pub Group said: “It went down really. There was cracking energy and it really gave me hope that we can one day have a pub where things happen, where people get together to spontaneously do fun things.”
On the night, there was folk music from the Morgan Rattler and a reading by local poet Blod Jones.
Matthew and local pianist Tyrone Landau also played together, leading the pub in a rendition of the adapted ballad ‘We are the Walworth Boys and Girls’.
Food was supplied by local charity The Walworth Living Room while Christmas hits were played on the ukulele, guitar and trumpet.
In recent years, the group has raised £15,000, some of which has already been used to consult with locals on what they want the new pub to be like.
This fundraising will also help the organisation put together a share offer, allowing local people to own a stake in the pub. Shares could potentially be sold for as little as £100.
Walworth locals breathed a sigh of relief last summer after local pub The Beehive avoided a conversion.
Southwark Council prevented its landlord from turning it into flats in June 2023, just as it did in January 2022.
To become a member of the Walworth Community Group visit their website at www.walworthcommunitypub.org.