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Location | 316 New Cross Rd, Lewisham, London, SE14 |
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Closed | 2003 |
The Goldsmiths Tavern was a pub and venue for both live music and comedy located at 316 New Cross Road, in the New Cross area of the London Borough of Lewisham in south-east London.
The pub was originally named The New Cross House. Nathan Dews' book The History of Deptford from 1884 refers to a pub of that name "at the top of Clifton Hill", and so presumably in roughly the same spot. [1] An issue of the Berkshire Chronicle from 16 July 1825 also refers to an establishment of that name in Deptford. [2] The original building was demolished and rebuilt around 1870. [3]
Local wrestling and boxing instructor Jack Wannop taught in the back room, then known as The Glass House, around 1885. The pub hosted a series of wrestling meets under Wannop’s management. [4]
In the 1960s Goldsmiths University students ran a folk club there. [5] The club saw performances by acts such as Pete Stanley, and Peggy Seeger. [6] [5]
It changed its name in the early 1980s to the Goldsmiths Tavern after the University. [6] It was the original venue of Vic Reeves Big Night Out, a live comedy night he started there in 1986 before moving it to the Albany Empire in 1988, and also where Reeves met future comedy partner Bob Mortimer. [7] [8]
Whilst generally attracting a mixed clientele, it held gay nights in the 1980s and was considered an LGBTQ friendly space. [9] [10] Paul O'Grady would also perform there. [11] A club night named The Gift, calling itself "The only London Gay Alternative Club", ran there in the mid-1980s and hosted bands such as The Love Act and The House of Love. [12]
Other bands to play the pub in the 1980s included The Ex, The Prisoners, The Dentists, Alternative TV and Test Department. [6]
In the 1990s the pub was a venue for techno and drum and bass nights, as well as punk and anarcho-punk bands. Acts to play there included Radical Dance Faction, Back to the Planet, U.K. Subs, and Senser. Inner Terrestrials recorded a live album titled Escape From New Cross there in 1997. [6]
It closed following a big police raid, then re-opened as just a pub in 2003. [6]
The building is still a pub, though since 2011 it is once again named The New Cross House. [13] [14] [6]
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