WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN Pub of Bermondsea London

DOVER KENT ARCHIVES

Page Updated:- Tuesday, 11 November, 2025.

PUB LIST

PUBLIC HOUSES

Paul Skelton

Earliest 1678-

World Turned Upside Down

Closed 2009

145 Old Kent Road

Bermondsey

London

Above photo, date unknown.

Above photo, 2008.

Above photo 2009.

Above photo circa 2010.

Above Google image, June 2022.

Above sign date unknown.

The World Turned Upside Down was situated at 145 Old Kent Road from the 1850s and closed in 2009. In its day it had been a Watney’s Brewery pub.

In 1878 a Victorian history of London said of the pub:- "The oldest of the inns in the Old Kent Road, perhaps, is one near the Bricklayers' Arms Station, which rejoices in the somewhat singular sign of "The World Turned Upside Down." The house is supposed to be upwards of two hundred years old, and down to about 1840 its sign-board represented a man walking at the South Pole. It may have been first set up after the discovery of Australia, Van Diemen's Land, or Terra del Fuego; but Mr. Larwood, in his work on "Sign-boards," interprets it as "meaning a state of things the opposite of what is natural and usual: a conceit in which," he adds, "the artists of former ages took great delight, and which they represented by animals chasing men, horses riding in carriages, and similar conceits and pleasantries." The old sign-board was blown down many years ago; and in 1868 the house itself was in great part rebuilt and wholly new-fronted."

The later 1930s pub was designed by A W Blomfield. Exterior refurbishment of this pub revealed original fascia incised lettering on the ground floor frontage: 'WATNEY'S ALES ... THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN ... REID'S STOUT'.

The pub became a music venue in the 20th century and is where Long John Baldrey gave his first live performance in 1958.

By 2012, the building had been extended upwards as a block of flats, with the ground floor converted to retail, but the original pub ground floor stone fascia was retained. In 2017, the right-hand Reid's sign was obscured by a modern Domino's Pizza sign, but the Watney sign on the left was still exposed.

Earlier addresses are given as Nelson Place, Old Kent Road (1861) and Canal Bridge, Old Kent Road (1839)

Rocque's 1746 map shows a pub called the "White Horse" approximately on this location, so that may have been an earlier name.

From the Kent Herald, 22 July 1824.

Elopement.

A post chaise drove up to the Town-hall police office on Tuesday, from which alighted a gentleman residing near Farningham, and the landlord of the "Black Bull" (sic) in that town, and inquired for Kinsey, the officer, the party's being in pursuit of the oldest daughter of the Captain, who had eloped with her father's coachman, George.

The officer immediately dispatched his beagles, and in less than two hours the fugitives were intruded upon in the act of sitting down to dinner, at the public house, known by the sign of the "World Turned Upside Down," (strange coincidence) in the Kent Road.

The enamoured pair were directly brought to the Justice-room and intelligence was forwarded to the Captain, who immediately accompanied the messenger back. A scene ensued that excited commiseration for the misplaced attachment of the young lady, who is in her 18th year, petite, and of wax-like beauty, and who accompanied her parents with reluctance, casting many a lingering look behind. The Lady's family, we understand, is allied to Nobility, and her father high in East India affairs. No marriage has taken place.

London papers.

LICENSEE LIST

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