Above photo late 1960s. Steve Thoroughgood says this view looks towards Gravel Hill and shows Kent Cottage to the right of the pub and the former Bexleyheath & District Laundry, the site of which is now (2020) occupied by the Albion surgery.

Above watercolour, 1954.

Above photo, between 1958-74, kindly sent by Denise Ripley.

Above photo, between 1958-74, kindly sent by Denise Ripley.

Above photo, 1969 showing the last day of the pub. Showing third from right, Fred Andrews, second from right is Harold Kitchener

Above photo showing the rough location. Showing the site of the Red Moon looking down Pincott Road. It would have sat between the roadside tree and the lamp post beyond – although I believe that is the same lamp post in both photos.

From an email received 23 May 2020.

Good evening,

First and foremost, I am not a ‘pub person’! My interest lays with the erstwhile coach company (Margo’s of Bexleyheath/Bexleyheath Transport), whose garage was also in Pincott Road two doors away from the Red Moon. I was only twelve years old when the pub was permanently closed, but vividly recall Margo’s staff calling in for a drink on Saturday lunchtimes after parking and cleaning their coaches for their next day’s work, in fact, two old stalwarts feature in your photo depicting the pub on its last day; Third from the right is Fred Andrews who started with the company as a charabanc driver in the early ‘20s. By 1967, he had become the company’s storekeeper. To his left (second from right standing behind Fred) is Harold Kitchener who drove coaches between the mid ‘fifties and 1971, the year of his death. Strangely enough, his regular coach (a 1950 Bedford OB purchased by the company in 1967) never ran again and was sold for scrap.

A few observations:- I very much like the 1954 watercolour which, I am sure, depicts the rear of the pub from an earlier period in time; my only photo of the Red Moon shows a more modern and larger building. Adjoining the pub is Kent Cottage, and both buildings were demolished circa 1971/2 to allow Albion Road to be widened and extended towards Gravel Hill. The Red Moon itself suffered an arson attack a few months before it was pulled down.

I feel that the watercolour is rather fanciful in that the land behind the pub was used as allotments until the early ‘sixties. There was no evidence of a rear access road ever having been there. From where the artist was ‘standing’, Margo’s ramshackle old garage (constructed between 1920 and 1931) would have been visible just beyond Kent Cottage.

Best wishes,

Steve Thoroughgood.