Former Youngs pub that was at 32 Church Road, Mitcham, on the corner with Church Place.
It was sold by Young & Co Brewery Plc in October 2003 for £425,500 plus £67,106 VAT to Mitcham Bull Ltd.
No longer a pub, it has been converted to private flats. The building is locally listed by Merton Council who noted:
This is a two storey detached building, which has a high parapet which conceals the roof. There have been public houses on this site since at least the 18th century, and the existing building includes fragments from several different periods, including a weather boarded building with a brick chimney at the rear. The building on the frontage of the site is likely to be a nineteenth century structure.
1967 Image courtesy of Collage – The London Picture Library – http://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk
Photo taken September 2016
From the Publican Ledgers in the Youngs Archives, reference YO/FIN/LED/PUB/6 March 1958, licensees were W.H. Parmenter & M.L. Monk and from 19/7/1958 W.H. Parmenter & E. Ferguson Roberts.
In the Licensed Victuallers records for 1903, the Bull had no accommodation available for sleeping guests, but did have stabling for 6 horses, and could provide teas and dinners if required, it also had 2 urinals and WC, and served the ordinary class of customers.
From Mitcham Cricket Green Community & Heritage:
Historical research dates a building on the site back to 1703 with first reference to the “Black Bull” in 1789
Oldest photo of Bull dates to 1860 with clear Georgian style & blind window filled in due to window tax Bull remodelled into Victorian style on ground floor at turn of century with moulded surrounds added to first floor windows
Final changes to Bull in 1960s adding softwood pilasters
Landlords
License Transfer from William Spong to Talbot Masters in 1893:
license transfers. The following licenses were transferred:—The Rose and Crown, Carshalton, from Mary Mawer, deceased, to Charles Mawer, the administrator; the Swan, Mitcham, from Henry Arthur Vickery, deceased, to Alice Vickery ; the Bull, Mitcham, from William Spong to Talbot Masters ; the Ravensbury, Mitcham, from William Wood to George Williams ; the Ship beerhouse, Mitcham, from John Wallis to Thomas Owens; the Goat, Mitcham, from Talbot Masters to Young Waterman,
Source: Sussex Agricultural Express – Tuesday 24 January 1893 from the British Newspaper Archive (subscription required)
From the Tithe Apportionment Map of 1846, the occupier of the land owned by Young & Bainbridge was James York. The land measured 1 rood and 20 square perches.
from the Surrey Petty Sessional Division records:
1903 George Henry SKILLERN
from the Electoral registers:
1911 to 1914 Andrew John HIGGS
No Electoral Registers during WW1
1918 to 1920 Thomas LAWFORD
1921 to 1936 Andrew John HIGGS
From street directories:
1839 : John BOREHAM
1851 : William BLANCHARD
1855 : Edwin TRIBE
1866 : Edwin TRIBE
1874 : Edwin TRIBE
1891 : Edwin TRIBE
1896 : Talbot MASTERS
1898 : T.W. MASTERS
1911 : Andrew Jn. HIGGS
1915 : Thomas LAWFORD
1925 : John HIGGS
1938 : John David HIGGS
Note that John HIGGS was more commonly known as Jack Higgs as shown in this ad:
ad from a 1929/30 season football programme
From newspaper articles
1945 : Alfred STONE – Mitcham News & Mercury 17/08/1945
From telephone directories:
1954 : A.J. JENNINGS
License Transfer Higgs to Lawford 25th September 1914
Note that Thomas Lawford was called up in 1917.
The name ‘Skillern’ can be made out above the entrance in this clip from around 1900:
c. 1900 clip from Merton Memories photo 50978
Merton Memories Photos
Youngs Archive Photos
There are eight photos in the Youngs Archives collection at the Wandsworth Heritage Services, Lavender Hill, under the reference
Photos are numbered under this reference from 001 to 008.
Number 1, (YO/PH/PUB/019/001) is also on Merton Memories.
Number 2 shows the Bull possibly in the 1960s or 1970s.
Numbers 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 relate to a Sponsored Pub Walk, April 1979. The photos feature two men in their early twenties who have completed the walk. James O. Young is in two photos. Landlord Keith Ketley is in number 6, shown giving a cheque to the two walkers. Archie Angus, Appeals Secretary at London Cancer Research Campaign, is in number 7.
Number 8 shows the Bull at the end of the 19th century and was used on page 74 of Helen Osborn’s book “Inn and Around London – A History of Youngs Pubs”, published in 1991 (ISBN 0951816705). This photo is not on Merton Memories.
Maps are reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.
Mitcham History Notes 