There used to be a milkmans garage next to the Porcupine i think .
It's over 30 years since i lived there & there wasn't a HD dealer that i remember, the garage hmm possibly but the milkmans garage yes remember that, only problem is I don't remember a pub next to it The name rings a bell, maybe somewhere else ???
Why was the Porcupine so dodgy? I used to go to Eltham College and the houses around there are very, very nice. Nothing in my mind to suggest a local pub where fights were the norm.
Why was the Porcupine so dodgy? I used to go to Eltham College and the houses around there are very, very nice. Nothing in my mind to suggest a local pub where fights were the norm.
Not overly dodgy surely? just about par for the area which was mostly estate pubs. Your standard demographic of builders, chancers and tea leafs, with a sprinkling of Spanner wannabes and ne'er-do-wells.
Why was the Porcupine so dodgy? I used to go to Eltham College and the houses around there are very, very nice. Nothing in my mind to suggest a local pub where fights were the norm.
I lived round there, along with Leaburn, Ansah and the Ferdinands mum. So yeah, one could say it was posh. The lot in the Porky come down from William Barefoot I think, as they were banned from the Princess of Wales
True story. My wife and some of the other mums used to take the kids to see the animals they kept in the garden of the Porcupine. One day I arranged to meet them there, i'd only been in there a few minutes when a bloke kept standing in front of me as I tried to get served (there were only 3 other people in the pub) I pointed this out to the Manager who recommended I left as I was upsetting the `regular'. We never went back.
Why was the Porcupine so dodgy? I used to go to Eltham College and the houses around there are very, very nice. Nothing in my mind to suggest a local pub where fights were the norm.
I lived round there, along with Leaburn, Ansah and the Ferdinands mum. So yeah, one could say it was posh. The lot in the Porky come down from William Barefoot I think, as they were banned from the Princess of Wales
Yes it is a nice area ...I live the otherside of the mottingham estate (elmstead woods)but i dont have any celebrity neighbours,like a lot of places in London you can go 2 streets along and find a very different demographic...not forgetting that the King and Queen on the mottingham estate and the great big place on William Barefoot on the Coldharbour have closed ..its all a great shame but a real sign of the times
The Porcupine has always had interesting clientele, back in the late 80's you had a bunch of regulars propping the bar every night. Alf the carpet, billy one eye (don't turn your back on your pint as he'd pop his glass eye in it) and numerous other characters. Some a bit more naughty than others.
One guy who's name escapes me was sent down for about 3 months for numerous thefts, including the fruit machine from the Porky (I kid you not)....... to show what a bonkers place it was the then landlord and the regulars had a collection going for him on the bar for when he came out.......
I last went in there mid Feb 2008 to raise a glass with a few old mates to my mum who's funeral it had been that day. It was full of odd characters even then, including a guy with a pug and a Great Dane with the pug constantly trying to hump the Dane..... decor was the same as 20 years before.
It really was a grim place..... sad to see it laying empty, will probably end up as flats.
Whilst the Dutch House has closed (years of terrible management saw to that) Lee has 3 GREAT pubs.
The Summerfield on Baring Road, The Northbrook at Lee Station and The Crown on Burnt Ash Hill have all had good money spent on them and are examples that with the right people in charge that good neighborhood pubs can still exist.
Got a large catchment area if you consider nearest boozers are the Tavern up the Bypass, The Porcupine, The Crown on Burnt Ash Hill and The Tigers Head. Should do okay if it was run right znd the guvnor laid on some bar drugs and brasses
Porcupine has gone now I think
Cause for celebration if true.........without doubt one of the most horrendous pubs I have ever had the misfortune to enter.......and as for the clientele (who were to a man/woman prime candidates for The JC Show), the less said the better!
Spot on, supposed to be a family pub but could never take kids to the toilet as far too many people had 'colds' in there
In the late 60's/early70's as a kid I used to hang around Mottingham Village. One of our group actually lived in the Porcupine. His grandfather was the Publican and ran the pub for about 10 years.
In those days it was a very respectable pub. Unlike the Royal Eltham on Coldharbour or the King & Queen on Mottingham Estate. Indeed I have very fond memories of the pub, but I never drank in their because the landlord knew us and knew exactly how old we were.
Comments
And he drove the fastest milk cart in the west
True story.
My wife and some of the other mums used to take the kids to see the animals they kept in the garden of the Porcupine. One day I arranged to meet them there, i'd only been in there a few minutes when a bloke kept standing in front of me as I tried to get served (there were only 3 other people in the pub) I pointed this out to the Manager who recommended I left as I was upsetting the `regular'. We never went back.
One guy who's name escapes me was sent down for about 3 months for numerous thefts, including the fruit machine from the Porky (I kid you not)....... to show what a bonkers place it was the then landlord and the regulars had a collection going for him on the bar for when he came out.......
I last went in there mid Feb 2008 to raise a glass with a few old mates to my mum who's funeral it had been that day. It was full of odd characters even then, including a guy with a pug and a Great Dane with the pug constantly trying to hump the Dane..... decor was the same as 20 years before.
It really was a grim place..... sad to see it laying empty, will probably end up as flats.
The Summerfield on Baring Road, The Northbrook at Lee Station and The Crown on Burnt Ash Hill have all had good money spent on them and are examples that with the right people in charge that good neighborhood pubs can still exist.
One of our group actually lived in the Porcupine. His grandfather was the Publican and ran the pub for about 10 years.
In those days it was a very respectable pub. Unlike the Royal Eltham on Coldharbour or the King & Queen on Mottingham Estate. Indeed I have very fond memories of the pub, but I never drank in their because the landlord knew us and knew exactly how old we were.
Great times and great memories.