Now no one told me about the Greyhound

The Greyhound in 2000

It is one of those things.  You leave the place you grew up in and they start changing things.

In their defence I did leave Eltham in the summer of 1969 and apart from brief visits home I have lived in the North ever since.

Now there are lots that are still the same, but today I want to reflect on the Greyhound.  It is another of those places that I have fond memories of but never really appreciated its history.

I always sensed it was old but when you are 18 out on a date, the history of the pub you are in is not the most pressing thing on your mind.

And of course on those rare times you go back there is not always the opportunity to revisit old haunts.

But I always thought the Greyhound would continue to pull pints and offer evenings of relaxation.

It never even occurred to me that it would join those vanished pubs of Eltham whose passing I mourned recently.*

The Greyhound in 1909

And it was only when Amanda and Michael both commented on the passing of the Greyhound that I discovered it too had shut up shop and moved on to other things.  In this case the Yin and Yetti.

Now there will be those who deplore this but then sadly so many of our pubs are closing that any new lease of life that keeps an old building with character and a rich past from being demolished has to be a good thing.

Here the old village school on the green and the  old Wesleyan Chapel on the Row have been saved from years of slow decay and eventual vandalism and demolition.  Not so 113 Beech Road which dates from the early 19th century and is now boarded up with half its roof gone after a fire a few years ago.

The Greyhound in 1909

So I am on a quest to discover all I can of the Greyhound today.

I know it suffered a fire and I am intrigued to know what of the original features have survived the fire and the passage of time since Ernest Robert Elms ran it back in 1908 with his wife, two children and a barman.

And I have already signed up Amanda and Michael, so as they say, watch this space.

*Who laments the passing of the Castle, the Welcome Inn and many more Eltham pubs? http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/who-laments-passing-of-castle-welcome.html

Pictures; The Greyhound in 2000 from Discover Eltham and its environs, by Darren Spurgeon, 2000 and the Greyhound and other buildings, from The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on 
The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers, http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm