The Windsor Castle, Carshalton

This is the third in a series of posts celebrating the heritage of our much loved local pubs. With thanks to Colin for his research today. As always, we welcome comments, photos or memories of your own. Please comment below, or email us at local.studies@sutton.gov.uk.
Please note, Sutton Archives is not affiliated with The Windsor Castle in any way. For further information about this business or for reopening information, please visit the pub’s website.

Over to Colin…

The Windsor Castle Hotel with trolleybus lines in 1954

Some of the best times I have had playing music have been courtesy of the Windsor Castle in Carshalton where a good-natured, lively and lubricated audience is hard to beat. So I was delighted to take the opportunity to research the history of the pub.

The first evidence of the pub’s origin can be dated to 1845 when Thomas Strachan, the resident of the house there – part of the Park Hill estate at the “West End” of Carshalton – set up a beer house. These were permitted under the 1830 Beer Act which, having less licencing requirements than traditional pubs, led to a substantial expansion of the market.

Bounded by the Carshalton Park and Carshalton House estates, with a corn meadow to the south and an orchard (rented with the house) to the west, the house was isolated but well-positioned, where the road from Carshalton divided to turn right to Sutton or straight on to Barrow Hedges and The Oaks.

The beer houses were restricted to an earlier closing time and could not sell spirits, so the more successful ones were often replaced with a purpose-built fully-licenced pub, and this is what appears to have happened here in 1860. Henry Hilton was the beer shop proprietor at the time, though this was not a good turn of fortune for him. He had to move out and went into service locally, while his wife moved in with their daughter and son-in-law in Greenwich. But she died there the following year.

The new building, now called the Windsor Castle Inn, resulted from a collaboration between the landowner, Charles Francis, a J.P. living at Belgrave House, Vauxhall and John Murton of the Sun Brewery in Shirley, Croydon. The brewery took a 99 year lease in 1858 and after the rebuild, rented it to Richard Shingleton, an ex-Navy man who had served on the second arctic expedition of HMS Enterprise.

The freehold of Park Hill came up for sale in 1861 and again after Charles Francis’ death in 1863. The auctioneer’s advertisement for Lot 3 noted that “a large Sum of Money has been recently expended in the Erection of a CAPITAL INN, known as ‘The WINDSOR CASTLE’ with stabling and other outbuildings, the Lessee being bound to make a still further outlay.”

Jones, Coal Merchant of North Street, with gig outside the Windsor Castle Inn c1870

Richard Gibbings Medland, previously a sanitary engineer, was landlord from 1884 until 1906. On a Monday evening in 1891, his wife, Emma, was in the sitting-room having just served a “small lemon” in the bar, when she heard the chink of money. Returning to check she found the new customer leaving and missed two florins from the china pot she used as a till. She raised the alarm and a Mr Saunders pursued and detained the man – George Neal a labourer from Croydon. Though he denied the theft, two florins were found on him and he was sentenced to a month’s hard labour.

The combination of alcohol and games could sometimes lead to conflict. In 1890 when the landlord was playing cards with half a dozen friends, an argument arose and George Barber, a homeless labourer, swore and spilt beer on the cards. On being asked to leave he threw Mr Medland over a table. He was fined a shilling for assaulting the landlord, who was also reprimanded for allowing gambling with cards. More seriously, in 1895 Henry Watts hospitalised John McCarthy by striking him on the head with a billiard cue, breaking it into three pieces.

These incidents took place in the “bagatelle” or “billiard” room and it is likely that this was the current pub’s function room – the “Cottage Room”. The single-storey outbuilding has also been leased separately (late 20^th century) as a builder’s office and an antique shop.

The kitchen was also originally a separate outbuilding, but was integrated with the main pub by degrees, which was completed before 1920.

View of the Windsor Castle from the east c1903

View of the Windsor Castle from the north c1903

In 1906 the Croydon tramway was extended to Sutton. Ruskin Road was created for the purpose, from where the trams passed the Windsor Castle, then turned right down Ringstead Road. The same route was later served by the 654 trolleybus (from 1936) which was replaced by the 154 bus (from 1959).

George Byers Gabb was landlord from 1908 until 1931, having learned his trade at The Duke of Edinburgh in Wimbledon and The Royal Oak in Croydon. His eldest son Richard was killed at Gallipoli in 1915 and his second son Stanley was killed at the Somme in 1916. Both are commemorated on Carshalton War Memorial.

The ownership changed hands as the brewery sector consolidated. Felix Ludlam & Ernest Grant ran the brewery at Shirley from 1870, by then called the Shirley Brewery, until 1893 when it became part of Page & Overton. This was acquired by Hoare & Co in 1929 which was in turn bought by Charringtons in 1933. In 1962 they merged with Bass, Mitchell & Butlers to form Bass Charrington.

“The Great Fire of Windsor”

On a cold and windy January evening in 1978, Alex Requena, a Gibraltarian who had taken over the management in 1976, had to evacuate his family from the flat and customers from the bar as a fire had started in a neon sign under the eaves of the roof. This was during a firefighter’s strike, so the blaze had taken hold and been whipped up by the wind by the time it was attended by armed service personnel in a Green Goddess – too late to save the upper rooms and roof. Bad weather caused further damage before a temporary roof could be erected. Fortunately, there were no casualties and the decorative engraved windows, wood panelled restaurant area and mottled blue and green tiling on the lower floor survived intact. The pub reopened in 1979 after substantial work.

1979 was also the year that I have earliest evidence of the pub’s status as a live music venue. This became a regular Saturday evening feature and the pub has become the most prestigious venue in Carshalton for rock bands. South London stalwarts Bad Influence (since at least 1999) and Cry Wolf (since 2010) still feature regularly alongside a variety of styles. Robin Bibi has hosted monthly jam nights on a Monday since 2005.

The pub has hosted an annual beer festival since 2000. Punch Taverns, who had acquired the Charrington pubs in 1997, sold the Windsor Castle to Shepherd Neame in 2009.

The Windsor Castle in 1977

Colin has been busy uploading further images of the pub through the years to the wonderful Layers of London.

Take a look, and if you have images of your own lurking in the cupboards at home, of this pub, or any other buildings or roads of notes from our borough, then get in touch at local.studies@sutton.gov.uk. We’d love to add them to our collection.