The Antic Pub Co, which recently acquired the William Stanley pub in South Norwood from Wetherspoons, has been as good as its word, donating a wide collection of old photos and pictures which used to adorn the wall of the boozer to Stanley Halls.

Pictures from the former Wetherspoons on South Norwood High Street await hanging at Stanley Halls

Locals, including the influential South Norwood Tourist Board, have welcomed the generous move, which was chivvied along by regular on-site interventions from Croydon councillor Karen Jewitt.

The re-designed and re-decorated pub, to be called the Shelverdine Goathouse, is due to open this Thursday, September 29.

The Goathouse will be rapidly expanding pubco Antic’s 45th pub to open in London, with several others still “fermenting”, according to the company’s website.

The company has also submitted plans to build on a former car breakers yard next to Norbury Station – Norbury Mews – although that development appears to have stalled over the past 12 months.

Why Shelverdine Goathouse?

Antic has adopted a sometimes eccentric, but always memorable, approach to the naming of its pubs, utilising some aspect of local history to inform their choice.

Pratts and Payne on Streatham High Road, for instance, borrows the name of the much-missed former John Lewis Partnership department store which once occupied the site – Pratts – and the surname of the notorious madame, Cynthia Payne, who used to use luncheon vouchers as a credit system in her brothel on nearby Ambleside Avenue.