HISTORIC ELTHAM
THE DUTCH HOUSE Sidcup
John Kennett looks at the history of an unusually named pub.
Road is home to three large
architecturally distinctive pubs - The Crossways (now Burger King), The Royal Hotel and The Dutch House which were all built in the 1930s to cater for the passing motorist, the charabanc trade and for the local drinker.
The Dutch House stands by the railway bridge at the road junction with Mottingham Lane and edges the Horn Park estate which was built in the mid 1930s by Woolwich Borough Council. The land for the pub was leased by the council to Beasley’s at a rental of £1,000 a year. The application to the Blackheath licensing division was supported by a petition containing 1,307 signatures but there was opposition from the nearby pubs of the Yorkshire Grey (now McDonalds) and the Crown, at Burnt Ash Lane.
It was to be the ‘jewel in the crown’ for Beasley’s North West Kent Brewery of Lakedale Road, Plumstead. Before he died director Harry Beasley contemplated an inn of Dutch design and dispatched Mr JH Rickcord, of the Woolwich firm of architects Messrs. Eley & Allen, to Holland to make sketches of Dutch architecture. The completed design included a hall measuring 54 ft by 30ft with a seating capacity of almost 300, a saloon bar, private bar, public bar, cellar below and residential accommodation on the first floor.
The Dutch House in 1963 before the railway bridge was widened.
Before construction could commence it was necessary to excavate a large quantity of earth, mostly clay, from a 15 feet high bank to give the site a 400 feet frontage and a depth of l20 feet. Excavation work began in July 1938 and the soil was transported to the Shooters Hill Road end of Woolwich Common where it was to be used for the creation of a polo ground. Rain delayed construction which took nearly a year to complete.
A distinctive feature of the design are the two crow-stepped gables at each end between which is set the iron panelled painted pub sign showing a l5th century couple in Dutch costume standing beneath the entwined branches of orange trees. The panel was cast at Lewes from a wood carving which was later hung on the saloon lounge chimney. The saloon lounge, at the opposite end of the building to the public bar, had a movable glass panelled partition separating it from the hall with a concert platform and a maple floor laid for dancing. The walls were panelled in wood and the furniture and fittings were to Dutch designs. The frontage, including the glazed tiled roof
Under Courage ownership 26 We are proud of Eltham
and coloured shutters topped with big chimneys, were floodlit at night to attract the passing motorist.
The Dutch House was opened on Monday 3l July 1939 at 11am.
The first licensee was Mr Alfred de Winter who had been with Beasley’s for many years and came from the Half Way House at Belvedere. Many of his friends in the
SEnine
The original pub sign.
licensed trade joined the opening party which were served by bar staff in Dutch costume and included Mr Gerald Beasley, Mr G Broadwater (Manager of Beasley’s) and architect Mr Rickcord.
The inside of the pub was an almost exact copy of a typical Dutch inn. Timber was used for the wall panelling and ceiling and painted blue tiles of sailing barges from Delft were fixed to walls. There were three bars and a large hall for dances and other functions.
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