‘(Pub)lic House’

Pubs across Croydon have been boarded up, abandoned and left to be empty. Phoebe remembers growing up in them. Roger (her Dad) remembers playing music in them since the early 90s. Together they go on a pub crawl across Croydon asking 3 questions: “What happened in these pubs, what are they now and what could they become?”.

The film was compiled through interviews and workshops, see their exploration of the music, stories and sounds that populate(d) these pubs.

This film has now toured 9 pubs and spaces within the postcode. Since the film’s release, the film has been seen by 555 people online and in screenings, with Phoebe writing poems for 6 pubs and Roger (with his band of friends from Croydon gigs) playing music in 4. They created the (Pub)lic House Manifesto, a website documenting the hopes, goals, wishes, imaginings of Croydon people for their local pubs in 2024. They sent it to over 40 pub influencers including council members, landlords and key influencers in the legacy of these buildings. So far a planning consultant and landlord have engaged with the project.

Read and share the manifesto here!

‘(Pub)lic House’ was one of the artist projects within Turf Projects’ latest commission series Desire Paths, as part of This Is Croydon, London Borough of Culture 2023. 

HOW PEOPLE GOT INVOLVED

Paid Opportunity – Be part of verbatim-poetry short film (Pub)lic House

• Did you go to a pub in Croydon that is now empty?
• Do you not like going to the pub in Croydon?
• Are you interested in shaping what this space could be in the future?

We’re looking for people living/working/connected to Croydon who have experiences of or opinions on empty pubs in Croydon. This includes The Leslie Arms, The Windmill, The Lion Inn, The Drum & Monkey and The Glamorgan (previously The Horse & Groom). This film will premiere at a screening and manifesto workshop on the 25th Nov 2023. With beer and chats after, we’ll create a manifesto zine to establish our hopes for our local to hold the council accountable. This will be sent to council members, landlords and key influencers in the legacy of these buildings, with hopes to make them (pub)lic houses again.

Participants were asked to fill in this Google Form or email iwenttothispub@gmail.com to get in touch to tell us about their connection to empty pubs.