DOVER KENT ARCHIVES

Page Updated:- Sunday, 07 March, 2021.

PUB LIST PUBLIC HOUSES Paul Skelton

Earliest 29/Sept/1853

Railway Telegraph

Open 2020+

112 Stanstead Road

Forest Hill

02086 995505

http://www.railwaytelegraph.co.uk/

https://whatpub.com/railway-telegraph

Telegraph Tavern 2016

Above photo, 2016.

Railway Telegraph 2016

Above photo, 2016.

Railway Telegraph sign 2016

Above sign 2016.

 

Named after the former telegraph station and also has been addressed as being in Lewisham when I have seen reference to it being named the "Telegraph Tavern".

 

Taken from their web site, March 2017.

A LITTLE HISTORY.

In 1853 the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway began installing a railway telegraph system along its line from London Bridge through Forest Hill.

This involved erecting an electric cable on poles alongside the line, connecting the signal boxes.

Also in 1853 a plot of land at the edge of a very large field was leased by the Earl of Dartmouth, Lord of the Manor of Lewisham and owner of the field, to Harry and Vincent Nicholls, two brothers with a brewery at Lee.

They built a pub on the site and called it the "Railway Telegraph," apparently a very early example of a pub tied to a particular brewery.

The large field was known as Pikethorne and had been owned by the Lord of the Manor since the 14th century. It was bounded by Sunderland Road, Stanstead Road, Westbourne Road and South Road.

Lord Dartmouth leased the rest of the field to a local developer who began building prestigious houses. The estate was called Dartmouth Park.

Christ Church, at the peak of the hill which must at one time have been covered with thorns, and the "Railway Telegraph," at the bottom of the hill, were among the first buildings to be erected.

The Vincent brothers employed John Hunter as the first landlord of the Railway Telegraph. He was granted a licence on 29th September 1853.

Courtesy of Steve Grindlay, local historian

 

LICENSEE LIST

HUNTER John 29/Sept/1853+

HUGHES Richard T 1881+ (age 50 in 1881Census)

 

CensusCensus

 

If anyone should have any further information, or indeed any pictures or photographs of the above licensed premises, please email:-

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