In 1949 the Pollards Hill estate tenants petitioned Mitcham Council for a local pub, and they responded by offering a plot of ground in Chestnut Grove to Whitbreads the brewers. Two ex-army Nissen huts were used for the public and saloon bars and in 1960 a permanent building was completed and opened. It was renamed the Oak and Acorn in 1993. Demolished around 2001.
Planning Application 00/P2454 approved 25th January 2001 for 14 3-bed houses, by Tower Homes, London & Quadrant Housing Association.
undated photo
News Articles
24th April 1959
Up the flag-and down the hatch
A FLAG was hoisted to the chimney of the partly-built Pollard Oak public house on Monday, and to the 24 workmen on the site it was …Cheers!
They were presented with a firkin of ale-a nine-gallon barrel. They drank it from tankards outside the new building in Chestnut Grove, Pollards Hill.
The workmen were taking part in a ceremony which goes back to the time taverns began. Known as “wetting the pot,” it takes place when the tilers take over from the bricklayers. It begins with the unfurling of a flag from the chimney.
REPLACES PREFAB
The new Pollard Oak will have replace the prefabricated public house nearby. It was built by Whitbreads as a temporary measure after the war. The opening will be in September.
The licensee will be Mrs. Edith Esgen, who has been at the prefabricated building since it opened.
The new Pollard Oak will have a bar which can be used as an assembly hall.
13th November 1959
THE MAYOR PULLS A FEW PINTS
MRS. LILIAN ESGEN closed the doors of Pollards Hill’s squat “prefab pub” for the last time on Tuesday-and walked into a large new three-bar public house next door. Mrs. Esgen has been licensee of the prefab since 1948 when it was opened as a temporary measure. She remains in charge of the new building – which retains the name of Pollard Oak.
A crowd of spectators watched the opening ceremony. Outside, in Chestnut Grove, Mitcham’s Mayor (Ald. David Chalkley) saw a Union Jack unfurled from the inn sign – and then went inside to pull a few pints for customers. Mr. H. C. Whitbread, an assistant director of Whitbread and Co., told spectators that it was the first opening ceremony he had taken part in.
The Pollard Oak has three bars, each with a new name. The Acorn Bar, which replaces the public bar, is a long room with mahogany panelling. It is divided from a games room by a central chimney breast.
The Oak Apple bar has walnut panelling and blue furniture and includes a snack bar.
The Oak Room, designed for parties and wedding receptions, will seat 80. It has a sound-proof ceiling and a garden.
Drinks are stored on cooled shelves. There is an off-licence at the front of the house.
Note: Several cars parked outside the Pollard Oak at the opening had the letters ALE preceding the registration number. They belonged to the brewers.
1968 ad
From the Mitcham News, 14th December 1973
“Organist Joyce Taylor gets a hand from regular Artie O’Hara and Pepe the poodle.”
Club-like pub that grew out of two Nissen huts
It could only have happened in a place like Mitcham – they needed a petition to get a pint.
Of course, the people of Mitcham have always been ones for petitions, but none of them have ever been so important as the one to get a pub in Pollards Hill.It happened just after the war when the old Mitcham council were showing up their neighbours with their building programme. Houses by the dozen were going up in Pollards Hill – but no pub. By 1949 it was too much for the thirsty locals and they started their battle for a boozer – and it was a battle too, what with two of the churches weaving the temperance banner.
Hut bars
But finally the council offered a piece of land in what is now Chestnut Grove to Whitbreads the brewers, who responded by putting up not a pub, but two old army nissen huts, one as the public bar and the other as the lounge.
For years the regulars were quite happy with the situation but eventually the brewers decided the good people of Pollards Hill drank enough to warrant a real pub and the Pollards Oak, as it is today, opened in 1960.
It’s a big place, built in the same brick as the rest of the estate and not so very long ago, when Mrs Lillie Edgerton was tenant, it was a posh place, too. There were white table clothes for Sunday lunch and the rumours still linger on about old Mrs Edgerton sending some of the customers round to the public bar if they weren’t smart enough for the lounge.
Now it’s changed again – some say for the worse- but the story of the Pollard Oak is far from over.
It’s run by a small company called Harmony Inns. They have six inns, to be precise, and that means personel supervision for them all. Why,company secretary, Mr Peter Shortland lives only down the road in Rochford-way, so if manager Jack Marsden has a problem, he tackles the boss across the bar.
An ex-army band sergeant and euphonium player, 43-year-old Jack might have been born to be a publican. He gives the impression that he’s a regular who somehow got caught the wrong side of the bar. He knows nearly all his customers by name and believes in standing them drinks.
“Well it’s the least I can do,” he said. “Besides, it creates a good impression. I love it here; everyone knows everyone else and we have a good time. We get really packed in the evenings; it’sa real community centre.” He’d put his finger on it there. Until the real community centre was built along with the new estate, the Pollard Oak shared the status of community centre with the old hall in Recreation-way, and people somehow never forgot it.
In fact, organist Joyce Taylor who plays there on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights gets a bit irritated when people won’t let her play without a deafening accompaniment of singing.
Of course, every pub has moaners and there are more than a few at the Pollard Oak. They don’t take kindly to Harmony Inn’s idea of interior decorating.Jack Marsden explained: “The designer goes round antique shops buying up old pictures and knick-knacks for the pubs, and every one has a stags head hanging in the bar.
The scruffy carpet in the lounge bar and the rickety chairs came in for some rude
comments too, but the bar has due to be extended sometime soon and then everything will be renewed.But as 67-years-old Mr Stanley Hutchings of Almond-way put it: ‘You can’t blame them, they’re going to put a new carpet in. The trouble is it’s the only pub for about a square mile. I come here because it’s convenient.”
Seventy-three years old Mrs Grace Freakes of Galpins road, remembers the old nissen huts. ‘They were lovely,’ she said. ‘On a Sunday the men would come in in their top boots, straight from the allotments. It was as if you were in the country and they were coming from the farm. But I still like it now. I see all my friends in here.”
Friendly
Over in the public bar it was the same story-only there the regulars attached more importance to the company than the surroundings.
Steve Bartlett, aged 20, from Edgehill-road, said: “It’s not smart, but it’s what you want. It’s a friendly place. There’s no aggravation.”
And a friendly place it looked, everyone seemed to be involved in a game of darts or dominoes or just propping up the bar chatting. The atmosphere was of a place where everyone knew everyone else and had heard all their jokes before, but didn’t mind.
Jack Marsden was pleased to find someone else who thought that about his pub. “Yes, once we’ve got the extension and the new carpet and furniture, it’s going to be really good.”
Then he came back to the problem in hand: “What are you drinking?”
Merton Memories Photos
Mitcham History Notes 