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VERSION:2.1
N:The Charlie Chaplin
FN:The Charlie Chaplin
TEL;WORK;VOICE:020 7703 6117
ADR;WORK:;;26 New Kent Rd, Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre;SE1 6TJ
URL:
NOTE:The destruction of London continues apace. I revisited Elephant and Castle in the week after it was announced the whole complex was going to be knocked down, doubtless to be replaced with an enormous Starbucks. Of the centrally located pubs, Ruby Tuesday's has disappeared and Elephant and Castle has been refurbished to appeal to lardy rugby fans, which leaves Charlie Chaplin's as the only standard bearer in the area. It's a funny pub, from the outside looking like the offices of a cheap furniture warehouse, with a dingy entranceway that is less than enticing. Inside is initially no more appealing: low-ceilinged and drowning in a smoky fug, a cheap television blaring out in one corner, the big screen obscured by a series of hyperactive lunatics playing on the slot machines. The interior is decked out in a fake rustic look of dark wood, yellow hanging lamps, a genuine cooking range lurking at the back near the pool table. The weirdest thing here is the clientele. This is a pub in the best South London Irish tradition: down-at-heel but generous and inclusive, the sort of people who will accept you as long as you accept them. Despite the presence of noisy Millwall fans, very drunk Irish rugby fans (to my delight Ireland had just beaten England that afternoon) and psycho-sportswear-teenagers playing pool, the atmosphere was fun and lively rather than murderously psychopathic. It also benefitted from a large and cheerful contingent of non-white drinkers, and I found it an altogether enjoyable place to stay for one-too-many pints. If, as I suspect, London is going through a colossal and hideous metamorphosis into a sort of soulless mega-Stevenage, then the singular environment of Elephant and Castle has to be celebrated for the short time left to it.
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