16 King William Street

Greenwich

020 8858 4544

https://www.greeneking-pubs.co.uk/kings-arms

https://whatpub.com/kings-arms

Above photo, date unknown.

Above photo 2011.

Above Google image, February 2023.

Above sign 2024, kindly sent by Steve Mortimore.

I am informed that the pub is also referred to as the bunker by some of the older customers, but no reason for this has as yet been found.

Further research tells me that during the blitz in the Second World War a bar below the pub was used so patrons could keep on drinking and they gave it the name of The Bunker. It was still being referred to by this name by naval staff of the National Maritime Museum as late as the early 1970s. It is said the licensee was Bill Barlow, a down to earth Yorkshireman who stood 6 foot 4 inches and weighed a good 15 stone.

However, Barbara Ludlow gives an earlier and slightly different explanation, she says:- My father, William Wellard, always referred to the Kings Arms in King William Walk as 'The Bunker'. He said that the nickname came from the habit of coal-heavers, in particular those working at the LCC power station at Highbridge leaving their shovels leaning against the wall of the pub when they took some refreshment. Whether it had the nickname before the pub was rebuilt at the beginning of the twentieth century I cannot be sure about, but certainly in the years before WW2 it was commonly known as 'The Bunker'.

Jacqueline Davies kindly writes to me who says she is interested in 17th century Greenwich and has been doing research from sources including a survey of East Greenwich Manor in a document titled "A survey of the Kings Lordship or Manor of East Greenwich in the County of Kent made by Samuel Travers 1695-97.":- The "King’s Arms," was part of Sir William Boreman’s estate, probably not far from Hog Lane (Old Woolwich Road) – but Travers survey not always sequential. Hog Lane was redeveloped about 1800 and is now renamed King William Walk.

I have just added this pub to that list but your help is definitely needed regarding it's history.

As the information is found or sent to me, including photographs, it will be shown here.

Thanks for your co-operation.

LICENSEE LIST

DAVEY Richard 1823+

HOLMES William 1826-May/48

THAINE Thomas William May/1848+

PAYNE Christopher 1852-Jan/54

LEWIS Charles Carter Jan/1854-Jan/60+

BURCHFIELD Sarah Mrs Jan/1860-62+

DUNNE H 1867+ ?

BUTT George Arthur 1866-74+ (age 37 in 1871)

HARVEY Jonathan 1881+ (age 29 in 1881)

GOODE George 1882-1901+

BALLARD H A Mrs 1905-08+

WILLIAMS Marie Mrs 1911-19+

BARLOW William 1938-50s+

https://pubwiki.co.uk/KingsArms.shtml

https://www.whatpub.com/kings-arms-greenwich

From the Pigot's Directory 1823

From the Pigot's Directory 1832-33-34

Census