The Morden Tavern
The last 'refreshment house'
The Morden Tavern
yourlocalguardian.co.uk
The pub was built in 1932/3 to a design by Sir Harry Redfern FRIBA for Truman Hanbury and Buxton Brewers and replaced a small agricultural worker's cottage which stood on the plot previously. The land was entirely agricultural until it was acquired by London County Council in 1929. The Tavern is the last of the 'refreshment houses' which were specifically constructed as multifaceted community centres for St. Helier estate. They provided a social meeting place and recreation facilities for every member of the community- from senior citizens to children.
Is it last orders?
By Carol Smiles
Named simply as The Tavern for a while, The Morden Tavern is now a pub which often shows live sports events on Sky TV. A decision to close the pub has angered many locals and they have launched a campaign to prevent it being replaced by flats and houses which, they claim, are not needed in the area anyway.
Protesters have launched a campaign to save their local against £2.1m council plans to sell the property to developers. Protesters acknowledge that the pub has had its problems in the past. it has attracted trouble but they say it has improved enormously in recent years and is now valued by local families. This view is also supported by Merton police.
Lawful Rebellion
'This is Local London' newspaper
It is also believed by campaigners that the council broke its own policy to protect pubs and other local facilities when deciding to close the Tavern and are asking the council to look at their decision again.
Campaigner David Smith, states in the newspaper This is Local London, “What is the point of having more housing when there is no community and social facilities to go with it?“
Alexander Mags of the Mitcham Society also opposes the planned development and claims the pub was built on a site given by a landowner for community use and could be put to much better purpose by the local community who are not in need of more shops, business premises and flats.
Another campaigner said in The Local Guardian that the plan to build flats on the site was 'about private greed rather than public need.'
Sandra Demar, on the campaign's facebook page warns, ‘Save this pub or lose something that you will never be able to replace...’
More than half of Mitcham’s pubs have shut down in just over a decade, with the head of a drinkers’ group blaming mismanagement and tough trading conditions for the closures.
Campaign
'This is Local London' newspaper
But he also blamed high taxes on beer for damaging the pub trade, and leading more people to drink at home.
Sadly the fight to keep the Morden Tavern open seems to have been lost.
In the Local Guardian, June White of Morden writes:-
'These pubs like the Morden Tavern were stalwart posts on the estate, offering strength and fortitude in those terrible wartime years. They sang their hearts out until closing time around a beer-soaked piano in the club at the back of the tavern, its rich songs echoing into the dark nights....These places should all remain, together with the other fine establishments that bonded our people together.
No man should rip down that which the people deem sacred to their hearts. Without these meeting places, we will be doomed to a lonely and barren existence... People cannot be confined in houses all alone staring at screens!'